Cape Town - Off-duty Law Enforcement officers may have saved the lives of a mother and her two little children after her car ran out of petrol at a robbery hot spot.
Not only was Nobuhle Hlangu, 37, stuck without fuel, but she also did not have any money in her wallet, her cellphone’s battery was flat and it was getting dark.
Luckily for her, a car full of off-duty cops spotted her and managed to scare off a man who was about to rob her.
On Tuesday evening, Inspector Mervin Knowles, the shift commander for Law Enforcement Ottery Rapid Response Unit and his colleagues, Gaynor Julius, Nande Gill, Chanel Isaacs and Roland Linnert were travelling home on Jakes Gerwel Drive when they noticed the car stuck at a known hot spot for smash and grabs.
The Khayelitsha mom, and her toddlers, aged one and three, were stranded on a stretch of road between the R300 and Oliver Tambo Drive.
Nobuhle's toddlers in the car. Picture: Supplied
Knowles and his team, who were off-duty, pulled over when they saw a suspicious man standing at the passenger door of Nobuhle’s silver Hyundai i20.
He says when the suspect spotted them, he ran off, and the officers pushed the vehicle out of the road.
“When we arrived there, the woman already had a man standing by her passenger door,“ explains Knowles.
“I pulled up in front of the vehicle and we pushed the vehicle out of the road. The lady informed us that she got stuck without fuel.”
Her cellphone battery had gone flat and she couldn’t call for help.
Knowles let her make calls from his cellphone, stayed with the family, and gave his team R50 to buy petrol.
Nobuhle said she was very scared: “I am so grateful because we arrived home safely. Thank you to Law Enforcement.”