Durban - Robbers using a blue light to hijack a truck on its way from Durban harbour to Johannesburg, probably for the millions of rand worth of computers it was carrying, would have been surprised at its other prized cargo - an imported R5 million McLaren sports car.
Fortunately for the Sandton car dealership that was expecting the consignment, the snazzy white supercar was recovered - still in its container - on the same day as the hijacking.
“The thieves surely didn’t expect to find that car in the front container. I’m sure they were shocked and knew that there was nothing they could do about it,” Johannesburg private investigator, Danie Day, told the Daily News on Tuesday.
“It had not a single scratch, but the seal of the container was broken, an indication that the thieves wanted access to whatever was inside.”
Day said the contents of the other container - laptops and notepads to the value of about R14m - were missing.
The truck was hijacked on the N3 between Warden and Villiers on Monday at about 4am. It was found at 4pm on the R547 between Kriel and Bethal in Mpumalanga.
The driver was put through a day of hell, and was eventually dropped in a township near Hartbeestpoort Dam, far from where the truck was hijacked.
Elphas Dlamini, 44, of Ixopo, who had been driving the truck, told the Daily News on Wednesday morning that he had not been injured but was still very traumatised.
“There were two men in a white BMW who had flashed their lights at me after I had changed lanes from the slower lane into the fast lane. I saw that they had a blue flashing light on their dashboard and I thought that I had maybe been going too fast, so I pulled over.”
The men asked if he had been aware that he was speeding.
“I asked them how fast I was going and they couldn’t tell me so then I got suspicious. They said they wanted to take me to the police station. I still had my door locked.”
They asked for his licence and became agitated when he would not produce it.
“That’s when they told me to get out. They took out their guns. I’m not sure what guns they were.”
Another car, blue in colour, drew up with three armed people.
The hijackers forced their way into the truck and took Dlamini with them.
They drove for “a little while” then stopped at a house in a township, where they locked Dlamini in the toilet for three hours.
“I was not familiar with the area and did not know where I was.”
They returned and told him that the “job had been finished” - but instead of taking him back to the truck they left him in the veld near Hartbeespoort Dam.
“I found a house and went there to use the phone. I called my office, who sent someone to fetch me. We all then went to the police.”
Day said: “We believe that this is the work of a syndicate because in two weeks, three computer-carrying trucks were hijacked between the N3 and Vosloorus.”
“I think the hijackers didn’t know about the car in the front and instead went for the computers. I would’ve just gone for that car!”
A senior employee at Creativity Logistics, the company whose truck was hijacked, said that it was contracted to do the delivery.
“There were two containers on the truck - the front one with the car and the second one with electronics. The hijackers were surely caught by surprise to find the car in the first container,” said the employee, who asked not to be named.
He said that as a matter of course Dlamini would undergo a polygraph test to confirm he had not colluded with the hijackers.
“We’ve got no reason to suspect that he is involved, but we have to cover our bases, for insurance purposes as well.”
Day said that the trailer and truck would be handed over to police on Wednesday.
Day appealed to anyone with information about the hijacking to contact him at one of these numbers: 083 7788 560/430/563/460.
Meanwhile SAPS constable Ntombi Mbule said police, stationed between Warden and Villiers, had received a tip-off about a hijacking in progress.
“A truck driver phoned in telling us that he had passed another truck belonging to a company he once worked for and he suspected it was being hijacked on the N3, not far from our police station.
“We sent out three vans to go and check what was happening,” she said.
“One took the off-ramp near the area of the suspected hijacking, and one took the route to the nearest border, which is Maseru, while the other one followed the N3 but could not find the truck.
“The police officers came back empty-handed and it is strange that a truck can disappear in that stretch of road,” Mbule said.
Fast facts
MacLaren 650S Spider
Engen type: 90° V8
Engine capacity: 3 799cc
Power: 478KW @ 7 250RPM
Torque: 678NM @ 6 000RPM
Maximum speed: 329km/h
0-100km/h: 3.0s
1/4 mile (400m): 10.6s@222km/h
Transmission: 7-speed dual clutch
Daily News