‘They took my child’: 11-year-old nearly kidnapped outside Rocklands winkel

ROCKLANDS neighbours rallied to rescue an 11-year-old from an alleged kidnapping when he was sent to the nearby winkel. 

The boy’s mother, Nastassja Mannel, told the Daily Voice that the traumatising incident happened between 7.30pm and 7.45pm last Thursday on Canary Street.

According to the mom, the laaitie was sent to the spaza shop down the road and that’s when the son was attacked by manne in a white Toyota Avanza before being rescued by a neighbour.

Nastassja explained: “I sent him to the shop. I was inside the house and my husband was outside. Bear in mind, I usually send him because the shop is just 15 feet away.

“Then all I heard was one of the neighbours screaming to my husband that they want to rob my son at the shop. By the time I came outside, the neighbours and my husband were running after the car. I was distraught. 

“On one side I heard someone talking about a bike, then the next moment I heard that they had taken my child in the Avanza. I just went blank.”

Thankfully she was put at ease when she saw her son at her neighbour’s house screaming, ‘Mommy, I’m here, I’m okay.’

Mannel explained that the neighbour who rescued him saw one suspect with a knife trying to grab her son from the Avanza.

She said: “He pushed my child into his house. When he turned around, another man was trying to come in to take him. 

“Another suspect got out of the vehicle with a bag. We don’t know what was inside, but the man he was fighting with had a knife. The whole household came out to help fight them off.”

The mother said she had never seen anything like it in all her years in Rocklands, though some residents claimed two Avanzas had been roaming the streets that evening.

The hero, who asked not to be named, described his encounter with the suspects, who had stopped and reversed the Avanza in the middle of the road.

He noticed one of them struggling with a bag, which appeared to contain a gun.

They said: “I saw they wanted to grab [Mannel’s son]. I pushed and lifted him, and told him to run. As we ran, I pushed him into my house and told him, ‘go in, go in.’ Then I ran back to the gate, grabbed bricks, and my family helped scare them off.”

Law enforcement spokesperson Wayne Dyason said the staff responded to the incident, but were unable to locate the suspects described in the incident.

Dyason said: “The matter was referred to SAPS, as the agency with investigative powers.”