Johannesburg – Police have arrested 10 people in connection with the offloading of cooking oil from a truck that had been reported hijacked.
No one knows where the hijacked driver is or whether he was hurt during the hijacking.
The hijacking occurred in Olifantsfontein, Midrand on Tuesday and the truck was then driven to Mayfair.
Johannesburg Central Police spoksperson Captain Xoli Mbele said police were patrolling in Mayfair after 4pm when some of the men who were busy offloading cooking oil from a parked truck and loading it into another, started fleeing.
“Police became suspicious and approached the truck. They found that it had been reported hijacked.
“The suspects were arrested. We found that one of them was out on bail for a similar incident in Boksburg.”
Mbele said they also called the owners of the truck who arrived at the scene and confirmed the truck was not supposed to have been in the vicinity of Mayfair as that was not its destination.
Mbele said further investigations also revealed that out of the people who were arrested, two may have been directly involved in the hijacking. The rest, he said, were people who normally sit on the side of the road waiting for trucks to arrive then helping offload them and getting paid.
In this instance, he said, the people believed to be directly involved in the hijacking of the truck asked for help from the men always looking for piece jobs and told them to run should they see the police.
“That’s why they ran but 10 were apprehended. Investigations are under way and suspects will appear soon in the Johannesburg Magistrate Court,” he said.
IOL