Cape Town – An extremely grateful Capetonian, Craig Barrowman, has started a crowdfunding campaign to help uplift the lives of two Good Samaritans who had "saved his car from the perils of himself".
Having no central locking system, he often forgets his keys in the car. However, on a Friday night last month he even went as far as forgetting his key in the car door outside the Dias Tavern in Zonnebloem in the CBD.
Several hours later, Barrowman, the owner of Friendly Cape Town Tours, discovered he had no car key in his pocket. Initially, his worst fears were confirmed when he returned to the spot where he had parked his car – it was nowhere to be seen.
He then went to the Cape Town Central police station to report his car stolen. It's unsure who had been stunned the most – the police or Barrowman, who found out "these kind people had seen the key hanging in the door, driven my car to the police station and handed in the key, to save it from being stolen", he wrote on social media.
The police officers didn't immediately ease Barrowman's fears. He first had to try to answer where he thought his keys were before an officer told him he had the key and that his car was parked across the road.
In a crime-ridden Cape Town, the actions of Lehlohonolo Sesedinyane, 30, and Peaceful Ndlangamandla, 27, had at first baffled the police, who "first threatened to arrest them for driving my car without my consent".
Yesterday, Barrowman launched a campaign on Backabuddy to thank Sesedinyane and Ndlangamandla, who had watched soccer in a pub that evening, by trying to turn their lives around.
The duo are struggling financially and have ambitions of starting their own small retail business,
With a campaign target of R10 000, only R220.69 had been raised in two days.
"Lehlohonolo Sesedinyane and Peaceful Ndlangamandla rescued my car on the night of Friday, 16 August when I parked it and left the key in the car door.
"They drove it to the nearest police station and handed in the key. It was handed over to me when I went to the police station to report my car as stolen," he wrote on Backabuddy.
"These two men are such great, positive role models and I just want to thank them for what they did for me. I hope in doing so to help them build a better life as they are both struggling financially and only just surviving.
"They are two great guys with great potential, and I would love them to be able to realise that potential better, with some financial assistance and hopefully some mentoring too.
"Many people in social media have said, 'I hope they can be rewarded'. This way, the reward can be much bigger than if it was entirely up to me. It took me a while to process what had happened and figure out what I could do about it – rather overwhelming!
"I have met and chatted with them. They have ambitions of opening a small retail business and need some finance to start, and some mentorship. Their living conditions are quite bad and it would be great if we could help improve that for them.
"I hope this will be a kickstart to lift them out of poverty, and also give their self-esteem a boost."