Police are hunting three men who assaulted and hijacked actor Jamie Bartlett at the weekend.
The hijackers made off with his Mercedes-Benz, worth about R1 million iPhone a shoulder bag and two gold rings valued at R250 000.
The Rhythm City actor was held at gunpoint at an intersection in Brixton near Auckland Park in Johannesburg, stuffed in the boot of his car before the thugs drove off with it.
Gauteng police spokesperson, Captain Kay Makhubela, said Bartlett’s car was stationary at the intersection of Owl Street and Frost Avenue when three men approached.
“They pointed guns at him. After they hit him in the face, they shoved him into the boot of his car,” he says.
Fortunately Bartlett was thrown out in an open field in Zonkizizwe, Katlehong on the East Rand.
Makhubele says Bartlett was unconscious and when he woke up on the field the next morning, he saw a house and went to ask for help.
The residents called the police.
The SA’s Got Talent judge and veteran actor, popularly known as David Genaro on Rhythm City, was attacked on Friday night.
The hijackers took his larney Mercedes-Benz and drove around with him before dropping him off in Katlehong.
A source yesterday told the Sowetan that Bartlett was doing “all right under the circumstances”.
Bartlett is not the first actor to fall victim to hijacking.
McDonald Ndou, known for his character KK on Muvhango, was hijacked by a gang of armed robbery in Johannesburg late last year.
Ndou had just parked his Audi when he was approached by three men as he was about to close the gate. Two of them were armed with firearms.
They put him in the passenger seat, took his cellphone and bank card and then drove off, police told the Sunday paper.
His car was recovered on the same day.
Shot
And in 2011, Cape Town singer Chad Saaiman was shot and nearly killed in an attempted hijacking.
The singer was shot in the stomach and had to undergo life-saving surgery at a Johannesburg hospital.
The singer had moved to Joburg only months before.
He was pulled over by hijackers who shot at him, the wounded singer managed to drive to safety at a nearby house where he collapsed.