We urge motorists to keep their guard up as we head into the holidays following a noticeable increase in hijackings and vehicle thefts. Over the past five days our teams recovered seven stolen and hijacked vehicles from across the greater Durban area.
In the most recent incident, the Marshall Security Emergency Dispatch Centre received reports at approximately 18h10 last night of a hijacking that had occurred on Firwood Road in Avoca, where a Nissan Almera had been hijacked by two armed suspects.
It was later established that the vehicle was fitted with a tracking device from Cartrack and a few minutes later the vehicle was found abandoned on the M25 where it was recovered by our team members and Cartrack ground team.
The vehicle was handed over to the Greenwood Park SAPS for further investigation and processing.
On Friday evening our teams were activated to assist in four separate vehicle recoveries over the course of four hours.
The first call came through when members of our Special Operations Team were activated on Friday evening to assist with locating a Toyota Hilux that had been stolen in the Pinetown area.
After a lengthy track, the vehicle was eventually recovered at 17h15 where one suspect was arrested by Tracker SA assisted by the Kwamashu SAPS and members of our Special Ops Team on 106604 Street in Ntuzuma C – Section. The vehicle and suspect were transported to Kwamashu for further investigation.
At approximately 17h55 members of our Special Ops Team were activated to assist Netstar with locating a Toyota Corolla that had been hijacked in the Durban Central area.
Our members immediately responded and together with Netstar ground team the vehicle was found abandoned and recovered on Mhlonhlo Road in the Kwamashu area. The owner of the vehicle did not desire opening a case with the SAPS and the vehicle was handed back to the owner.
Our teams were then activated to assist Cartrack, Netstar, Tracker SA and the Kwamashu Trio Crimes Unit with locating a VW Polo that had been hijacked outside the campus of a Berea university by an unknown amount of armed suspects.
Members were activated at approximately 19h10 and responded to the vehicle’s last known location in Heron Road in Kwamashu A – Section. Upon their arrival, the suspects were still in the process of stripping the vehicle and immediately started to flee on foot after noticing team members approaching. The suspects fled with the spare wheel of the hijacked vehicle.
Members immediately gave chase but unfortunately the suspects managed to evade arrest by disappearing in between the shacks. The spare wheel was recovered not too far away from scene. The vehicle was taken to Kwamashu SAPS for further investigation and processing.
A couple hours later members of our Special Ops Team were yet again activated at approximately 21h00 to locate a Toyota Etios that had been stolen from the Snell Parade in the Durban Central area.
Our team members together with the Netstar and Tracker SA ground teams recovered the vehicle abandoned in the Kwamashu area a few minutes later. The owner of the vehicle did not desire opening a case with the SAPS and the vehicle was handed back to the owner.
These incidents follow the recovery of two vehicles that had been both stolen from the Point area on Thursday last week.
