Ekurhuleni police recovered a white Toyota Hilux double cab vehicle which was hijacked from its owner before the owner was kidnapped and later dumped along the N3 highway.
A tracking device on the Toyoya Hilux led police to a house owned by a 60-year-old woman, who resides at the house, but she was not sure how the stolen vehicle landed in her yard.
Spokesperson for the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD), Lieutenant Colonel Kelebogile Thepa said the vehicle was recovered on Wednesday morning in the Kwa-Thema area.
“While performing their normal duties, officers received a tip-off from a vehicle tracking company regarding the location of a reported hijacked vehicle, a white Toyota Hilux bakkie,” Thepa said.
The information was followed up and the officers were led to a yard on Kwa-Thema area, where a vehicle matching the description of the hijacked vehicle, was found,” she said.
“The owner of the house, an elderly female aged 60-years-old alleged that she assumes the vehicle might have been dropped by one of the grandchildren. The grandchildren were nowhere to be found.”
The EMPD said the vehicle was hijacked from an “African male owner”, in the Tsakane area, and his cellphone was also robbed by the hijackers.
“Furthermore, the owner was kidnapped with the vehicle and later dumped on the N3 highway. The owner opened a case docket at the Zonkezizwe police station, and an investigation was initiated,” said Thepa.
“All the necessary stakeholders were summoned, and the hijacked vehicle was booked in at Kwa-Thema police station for safekeeping. Although no arrests have been made, EMPD officers are on the lookout for the perpetrators.”
Earlier this year, police in Ekurhuleni recovered a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV after it was hijacked from its owner in Delmas, Mpumalanga.
At the time, spokesperson for the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department, Lerato Monyane said the owner of the house where the popular SUV was parked said a man had brought it and parked it. The man who allegedly brought the vehicle had vanished and could not be reached on the phone, according to police.
“On Monday, March 2023, at 9.30, members of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department’s Tsakane precinct officers, in conjunction with the South African Police Service tracing unit, recovered a hijacked vehicle at Tsakane,” said Monyane.
“The EMPD officers received information regarding a hijacked vehicle that was spotted driving around the Tsakane area. Following up on the information, officers were led to a residence on Mosaka Street in Tsakane, where the hijacked white Toyota Land Cruiser SUV was found.
“Allegedly, the SUV was hijacked from the owner at Delmas on Sunday, 5 March 2023, and a case docket was opened at Benoni police station. The owner of the house alleges that the known suspect parked the vehicle and left.”
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