A delivery man is lucky to be alive after he was rescued from a group of kidnappers who demanded a R20 000 ransom for his release on Friday.
According to a Daily Voice, source the 29-year-old man was found tied up in a hokkie in the Marikana informal settlement.
“It happened on Friday shortly after noon. The driver was hijacked near Philippi and the vehicle was tracked to Marikana.
“It was found in between the shacks and the hijackers and the driver were gone.”
The source said when cops arrived, they got a skrik when the victim’s wife informed them that she had received a call from her husband.
“She explained that the kidnappers video-called her from her husband’s phone and the poor woman got such a fright because they showed her husband tied up as they held him at gunpoint and they demanded R20 000 for his release.
“She was then advised to keep the kidnappers on the phone and even made screenshots as she negotiated a payment of R2 500 but the kidnappers were unaware that it was a stalling tactic as police tracked the phone.”
He said that cops rushed to another part of Marikana and found the victim.
“The kidnapper was wrestled to the ground and found in possession of an imitation firearm and he was taken to Philippi East SAPS.”
Police spokesperson Wesley Twigg said that Philippi East police registered hijacking and kidnapping cases.
“The circumstances surrounding the incident are the subject of a police investigation.”
The latest quarterly crime statistics released last week revealed 187 people were kidnapped in the Cape Town this year. The most kidnappings occurred in Mfuleni (25), Khayelitsha (23), Milnerton (22) and Delft (21).
dailyvoice@inl.co.za