/ 1 January 2002

Could I have that one in blue please?

A 41-year-old woman and her two children from Bedfordview on the East Rand had a narrow escape on Thursday night when hijackers returned her car because it apparently was the wrong colour.

East Rand police representative Annaline Prinsloo said in a statement released on Friday that the woman and the children aged 14 and nine, arrived home around 7pm. Three men, of whom one was armed, confronted her and forced her into the back of her white Volvo.

They drove off with her and the girls along the N3 highway towards Alexandra in north-eastern Johannesburg.

Prinsloo said when the hijackers and the woman arrived in the township, the men spoke to another man, possibly their ”client”.

The woman noticed that the ”client” was apparently not happy with the colour of the car. Shortly afterwards the robbers returned the woman’s keys and after stealing her cellphone and jewellery, asked her if she would find her way out of the township.

”She said she didn’t know how to get home and the robbers gave her precise directions (on) how to get out of the township and back to Bedfordview,” Prinsloo said.

The woman drove off and reported the matter to the Bedfordview police shortly before 10pm. She was treated at a nearby hospital for shock.

She did not want to be interviewed by the media on Friday because she was still suffering from shock.

Prinsloo said police were investigating the incident. – Sapa