A Bonteheuwel dad has stepped forward to expose a con artist accused of trying to kidnap a young girl from Ravensmead in an elaborate plot to steal her cellphone.
Clint van As, 40, says the man who was caught on camera at a shebeen in Netreg also stole two cellphones in Bonteheuwel just days before he abducted Ashlin Pritchard, 11.
Last week Ravensmead residents went bos when Ashlin’s neighbour, Stacey Bowers, 32, told them a dark-skinned man in a grey Toyota Tazz had duped her into believing her husband was in trouble and used the meisie’s Huawei phone to track a bakkie.
The girl was found safe at a supermarket hours later, but Stacey warned people to beware of the skelm, who had gathered information about her husband from neighbours the day before to gain her trust.
KIDNAP: Ashlin Pritchard, 11. Picture: Leon Knipe
Clint says three days before Ashlin’s kidnapping, his 17-year-old son and a friend’s wife also fell victim to the scammer.
“My son told me my friend’s wife came to him for help, saying she needs a Huawei phone to help track her husband who is a truck driver,” he explains.
“She was with this man and he told her he works with her husband and knew he [the husband] was a driver.
“My son let them use the phone but as he was trying to get the rottweiler behind the gate, they drove off.”
The angry dad went looking for his friend’s wife and was told she had gone to a shebeen in Netreg.
“I went to see the footage and I saw him. I questioned about 15 people who said they had seen him in the area,” says Clint.
“I went to my friend’s wife and she told us the same story but we didn’t believe her. I thought she was involved.
“Then I saw the article in the Daily Voice and got a skrik to see it’s the same story and I had to apologise to her.”
VICTIM: Stacey was tricked. Picture: Leon Knipe
The woman’s husband, 41, who asked not to be named, says after getting the teen’s phone, the skelm also stole his wife’s cellphone.
“She was sent to the shebeen by someone in the road and that is how he was caught on the camera,” he says.
“I believed my wife because that man knew a lot about me, but I have never seen him in my life.
“After he got both phones, he told her to get help from a bakkie and as she got out, he drove away.”
When the Daily Voice sent the man’s picture to Bowers, she shouted: “That is him! I will never forget his face...”