Fishers casting their lines at Strandfontein beach are warned to be weary of a gun-toting couple after they attempted to hijack a man on Friday.
Police were called to the popular fishing spot known as “The Broken Road”, along Lukanon Drive, shortly after 3pm, where the skelm couple held a fisherman at gunpoint and tried to steal his white Isuzu double-cab bakkie.
Johann Nel, 52, says the pair appeared to be a regular couple taking a stroll on the beach on Valentine’s Day.
“They were a very innocent-looking couple and spoke nicely, asking questions about my drone,” he says.
“I spoke to them for a while but started getting impatient because I wanted to get my line in the water.”
CATCH: Johann Nel robbed while fishing.
The Northern Cape man, who visited Cape Town over the weekend with his wife, says he’d just caught a 7kg kabeljou and was getting ready to leave when the couple returned.
“The man had a moon bag on and pulled out a revolver and held me at gunpoint,” says Johann.
“He became aggressive and wanted the bakkie keys. I told him where to get it and the woman told me to get in the passenger side, but I refused.”
He says the couple threw some of his belongings in the back of the bakkie and drove off the tar road towards the sand dunes, while he ran for help.
But their getaway came to a grinding halt as the dom skelms failed to put the vehicle in 4x4 mode and got stuck in the sand.
They jumped out and ran away off with his GPS, cellphone, keys and a bag containing his drone accessories, but left the drone behind.
STUCK IN SAND: The dom hijackers didn’t put vehicle in 4x4 mode
Johann says both Muizenberg and Strandfontein police arrived on the scene, but kept shifting responsibility as to who should take the case.
He says local fishermen came to his aid and drove all the way to Cape Gate to get his spare keys.
Strandfontein Community Police Forum (CPF) chairperson Sandy Schuter says while the area falls under the Muizenberg police precinct, any officer could have assisted.
“Strandfontein police could have taken the case and transferred the docket to Muizenberg later. I am shocked that the police would just leave like that because they usually take the case,” she says.
SHOCKED: Sandy Schuter