Four arrested in Botshabelo after stabbing, Hilux hijacking and a GPS chase that ended in a fence
A 23-year-old was identified by the bakkie's owner as the man who hijacked him, police say, after a joint SAPS and tracking-company pursuit recovered the R250,000 vehicle in Section U.
Four men aged between 18 and 23 are expected to appear in the Botshabelo Magistrate’s Court on charges of hijacking and possession of a suspected stolen vehicle, after a motorist was stabbed and robbed of his Toyota Hilux bakkie in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The arrest followed a search that moved from the street where the attack happened to a residential yard in a different section of Botshabelo, roughly 45 minutes from Bloemfontein, where the bakkie crashed into a security fence and stopped.
As IOL reported on 28 September, the incident was reported to Botshabelo SAPS, which shared the information with the Mangaung Metro Crime Combating Unit. Police put the value of the white Hilux at approximately R250,000.
According to police, the search was run jointly with a car tracking company. Using GPS co-ordinates, the team tracked the vehicle to Section U, where officers spotted it being driven recklessly at high speed. After a pursuit, the bakkie collided with a security fence at a residence and was brought to a halt.
Four occupants were tactically approached and arrested, police said. During processing, a 23-year-old man was positively identified by the owner of the bakkie as the person who had hijacked him.
Police said the vehicle was recovered with blood stains suspected to belong to both the victim and the suspects. A cellphone and clothing were also recovered.
For residents of Botshabelo, a large township outside Bloemfontein in the Mangaung Metro, the sequence will be familiar in its outline and notable in its ending. Vehicle hijacking in South Africa is typically a crime of minutes, not hours, and recovery rates depend heavily on how quickly a tracking signal reaches a responding unit and whether the vehicle is still moving. In this case the bakkie was still being driven when it was found, which is what allowed the pursuit rather than a search of a stripped shell.
The case also shows the working arrangement between private tracking companies and SAPS units in the province. Tracking firms supply the co-ordinates, and the metro and station-level units supply the armed response and the arrest. The Mangaung Metro Crime Combating Unit is a municipal policing structure operating alongside SAPS in the metro, and it was drawn in specifically to assist with recovery.
What the arrests do not yet establish is a conviction. The men face charges, not findings, and the identification by the owner is an allegation that will have to be tested in court. Police have not said whether any of the four has previous hijacking charges or whether the other three are alleged to have taken part in the stabbing itself.
The bakkie is now evidence, along with the cellphone and clothing recovered from it. The blood stains police described will form part of the forensic picture if the matter proceeds.
No date has been given for the first appearance beyond the expectation that the four will be brought before the Botshabelo Magistrate’s Court, where the charges will be put to them.
Source: IOL, Four men arrested after stabbing motorist and taking his Hilux bakkie near Bloemfontein
