Phoenix police are investigating a kidnapping and robbery case after a 75-year-old Phoenix woman from Cillagrove, Grove End, was kidnapped and robbed while shopping for groceries at a local shopping mall on Monday, 5 June.
Speaking to the Phoenix Tabloid, the pensioner’s son, who did not want to be named said: “On Monday morning, between 10.30am and 11am, I took my mum to a local shopping mall and left her at chain store where she wanted to purchase some groceries, I assured her that I would be back in a few minutes as I headed to the ATM inside the centre. To my surprise, there was a bit of a queue and I found myself waiting in the queue slightly longer than I had expected. Upon my arrival at the particular main chain store, I couldn’t locate my mum and when I tried calling her cellphone, the call went straight to voice mail.”
That is when the victim’s son began panicking and looking for his elderly mother at various stores and still couldn’t find her. He managed to contact a security guard inside the shopping mall and gave a full description of his mother, with the guard noting everything and assuring him that he will look into it.
He went back into the main chain store and requested for camera footage to see if the pensioner had left the store and if so, whom with. “I was advised that they would not let me look at the footage but they would look to see if she did leave the store based on the description I had given them. Time had elapsed to almost over an hour going on two hours, I tried calling my landline thinking that maybe my mum had taken a taxi and went home but there was no answer. I proceeded to the taxi rank to see if she was in any taxis but she was not there. I then proceeded to another shopping centre and while there looking for my missing mum, I received a phone call from my sister telling me to call a certain number urgently. I managed to phone the number and a guy by the name of Niel answered and told me that my mum was safe and that he was with her in the Glenhills location and I needed to fetch her,” said the victim’s son.
He said according to his mother, she had been doing her shopping when someone touched her and rubbed off a sticky black substance on her shoulder, which caused her to immediately go into a hypnotic state. “She was able to talk but could not control her body physically. I was escorted by two Black ladies outside the shopping mall, across into another car park who advised her that they found thousands of rands worth of money and wanted to divide the money amongst the three of them. My mother then told them that she does have money and does not require that money. The ladies then told her that they are going to take her to the police station and forced her into the vehicle. A Black man dressed up as a security guard also pitched up – there were several security staff badges inside the vehicle,” said the man.
“Upon driving past the Phoenix police station, my mum asked where they were taking her and they said they are taking her to a another police station. They robbed her of R1580 in cash as well as her cell phone. My mum is a cardiac patient with a pacemaker implanted into her heart so she’s chronically not well. Eeventually they dropped her off at Glenhills across the Redhill cemetery. She was told that they would come back and would keep her for a random which would be requested from her son. She sat under a nearby tree, waiting for these individuals, of which another Black lady approached her after a while and explained to her that she was not in the right state of mind and these people were not coming back for her. She offered to take my mum to a safer place and managed to find a security guard who then tried to trace myself or any of my siblings. He then proceeded to call Niel who is part of the Community Policing Forum in the area, who then came with a group of people to keep my mother company,” the man said.
He said his mum told them to call his working place as she could not remember any numbers. “They tried to call my work number but could not get through and somehow she managed to remember my sisters phone number and called her. She then called to inform me where my mum was and that I should call the guy who was with her at the time. I drove to the location where she was kept in a good state. We then proceeded to the Greenwood Park police station where we were told to open up a case at the Phoenix police station as the incident happened in Phoenix. We immediately took her to the doctor for a check up and discovered that her pressure was quite high. She was in a state of shock and couldn’t remember much.”
The man said the pensioner is in the process of recovering. “I’ve taken her for counselling and she’s in a state of recovery. We want other people out there to be aware of what’s going on, particularly the elderly and anyone that is vulnerable as anyone can fall prey and a victim to this, including small children. We urge the community to be vigilant and alert of their surroundings especially at shopping malls where we come across hundreds of people, of which some may be perpetrators of criminals elements,” he said.
“This is our local shopping mall and we have a right to feel safe in our community and want everyone else to feel safe. We don’t want someone else to be a victim of what my mum has experienced. We just want to create awareness and want people to stay safe. We are hopeful that the police will investigate the matter and bring the perpetrators responsible to book as anything could have happened to my mum that day,” added the man.
