A TEENAGER learnt the hard way – that crime does not pay.
The 18-year-old boy from Philippi Browns Farm, Cape Town, was moered by a mob after an attempted hijacking early this month.
He was lucky to escape with his life.
He apparently tried to hijack a car, but residents bust and allegedly moered him while his two older friends escaped.
The SunTeam visited him after he returned from hospital, where he spent 10 days. He said he would never go back to his bad ways.
“I nearly died. People attacked me with fists, sticks and stones. I didn’t think I would come out alive. My leg is still painful and my hand has not healed,” he said.
His father (61) said he told him to stay away from trouble but he wouldn’t listen. He said over the past two years, he had become unruly and friends would fetch him at night.
The father said community leaders told him his son was involved in robbing e-hailing drivers.
“They told me he was one of the boys who hijack cars, but I couldn’t believe it. When I asked, he denied it.
“When I heard he was moered, I knew it was because of the issues I was warned about.”
Nyanga commander Brigadier Vuyisile Ncata said boys as young as 14 were involved in hijackings.
“We have to release them into the care of their parents. They request e-hailing drivers using free Wi-Fi, only to hijack them,” he said.
Community policing forum member Bandile Mhlola said the boys also pretended to be buyers on Facebook.
“Sellers come with goods and then get robbed by these boys.”
Captain Frederick van Wyk said no case of mob justice or attempted hijacking was reported. He urged residents not to take the law into theirs own hands.
