A Johannesburg mother and son were able to make a quick escape after they managed to evade an attempted smash and grab incident in the CBD on Saturday afternoon.
They were travelling through the CBD and slowed down as they neared the traffic lights on the corner of Albertina Sisulu Road and Mooi Street when a man dressed in black approached their vehicle and tried to smash one of the car's window.
CCTV cameras captured the incident, and the video clip was widely circulated on social media.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said the perpetrator used something resembling a hammer to try and break their window, but only managed to damage it in the process.
"We were visiting someone on that road," the woman told News24.
Her son, who also requested to remain anonymous, was driving the vehicle at the time of the attack. He had insisted his mom put her handbag in the boot of the vehicle before they set off home.
'Common occurrence'
On Sunday, when he went to report the incident at Jeppe police station for insurance purposes, he was allegedly turned away and told to open a case at the Johannesburg Central police station instead.
"I am very disappointed in Jeppe police station. My son called me to tell me that they refused to open the case," the woman said.
"So I told him, you are not driving downtown again... I didn't want my son driving back in town," she said.
News24 spoke to security company FASDA Protection whose cameras captured this latest attempted smash and grab. FASDA said these attacks were a common occurrence in the CBD with about six to eight recorded daily.
They believed a syndicate was to blame, adding that the assailants usually made off with valuables such as cellphones and laptops.
FASDA said it had provided local SAPS with the footage, but had so far received no response. It had since resorted to posting the video footage online to garner public awareness of the syndicate. The woman said she had seen previous videos of the men targeting motorists in the CBD, and was convinced it had to be the same men.
But for now, she's just happy to have walked away unscathed.
"I believe that the charity we gave that morning, the Almighty was there, and angels are the reason why we were saved," she said.
Gauteng police spokesperson Captain Mavela Masondo told News24 that an internal investigation would be opened to find out why Jeppe police station did not open the case:
An investigation will be conducted as to why they were turned away because they were not supposed to be turned away. Instead a case was supposed to be opened and then transferred to Johannesburg Central police station. They can still go to any police station and open a case and it will be transferred to Johannesburg Central police station.
Masondo told News24 they were aware of a group of people targeting motorists in the Johannesburg CBD and had since intensified police visibility.
"We are working with other law enforcement agencies like [the] Johannesburg Metro Police Department and private security companies. There are some suspects using the same modus operandi that have been arrested. It shows that there are others that are still out there because it is starting to happen again.
"But we will hunt for these ones and it's just a matter of time before we arrest them as well. We are appealing to the community that if they become victim to of such a crime, please report it to the nearest police station," Masondo said.
SOURCE: NEWS24
