Granddad dodges hijacker’s bullet

INLSA

Killorine Simone describes her ordeal during the hijacking. They took the car, belonging to husband, Sean. Picture: Sbonelo Ngcobo

Durban - The protective instinct of an eManzimtoti grandfather nearly cost him his life when he tried to wrestle with hijackers.

Killorine Simone, 22, of Scottburgh, said she and her father, Gary Jackson, had been reversing her husband’s car out of her grandfather’s St Winifred home last week when gunmen blocked the exit.

They tapped the windows and ordered the two out of their car.

“It happened so quickly, just like in the movies,” Simone said on Sunday.

“We were busy bidding farewell to my grandfather. As I started the car, the brake lights switched on, revealing there was a car behind us. Within a matter of seconds, two guys in their mid-20s pounced on us.”

Her grandfather, Peter Jackson, 76, who had seen what was happening, ran down the driveway shouting, “Watch out, watch out,” she said. “The next thing I saw was my grandfather, who has had a stroke, trying to wrestle with them.”

One of the hijackers pointed a gun at his chest. Amid the confusion it was difficult to say exactly what happened next, but the gun appeared to have discharged, “missing grandfather by inches”, said Simone.

The hijackers then sped off in her husband, Sean’s, car.

The brave young mother, who has twice survived house-robberies, said it had been a blessing that her three-year-old daughter had not been with them at the time.

“These guys were aggressive. Fortunately, my father and I remained calm and played by the rules,” she said. “I only got a shock afterwards. It would have been worse had my daughter been with us.”

The drama unfolded on Wednesday night, when Simone and Jackson left a family braai in Sean’s car to go to her grandfather’s home about a kilometre away to help him fix his television. She left her husband, Sean, 32, and their daughter behind.

Simone said she saw three occupants in the white Citi Golf, with tinted windows, that blocked their exit.

Sean’s car, a 2011 model, was found by a tracker company parked in bush near Adams Mission the following morning.

The spare wheel, emergency kit, sunglasses and a camera were stolen.

The window on the driver’s side had to be smashed by tracker officers to gain entry.

Sean said he was relieved that the hijacking had not ended in tragedy.

“After hearing about the hijack, everyone panicked,” he said.

“We checked if everyone was safe, then we called the police and the tracker company.

“My wife and I had to sleep at my father’s place, because the house keys and other valuables were in the hijacked car. I still dread what nearly happened to my lovely wife,” he said.

Police spokesman, Captain Thulane Zwane, said a case of car-jacking had been opened at the eManzimtoti police station. No arrests had been made and investigations were continuing, he said.

nkululeko.nene@inl.co.za

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