Taxi in Cape Town tries to kidnap woman in Loop Street
Ladies, a friend of mine was out in town on Saturday night. She got in to a taxi in Loop Street on her way home at about 1:30 am. According to her good friend “the taxi driver grabbed her head, pulled it to the gear box and threatened to kill her if she didn’t stop struggling. He wouldn’t respond to what he wanted. Eventually she managed to manoeuvre into the front seat and kick herself out of the car.”
“She is badly bruised, bump on head and shaken up, but she is okay. Some angelic strangers in the neighbourhood took care of her whilst she managed to let us know where she was. Obviously the taxi driver made off with all her belongings. When the police arrived, she was able to trace her iPhone…”
“…Well done to my brave friend for making it out of such a scary situation. Please please be careful. Please share and let women know not to take cabs alone at night. Rather use Uber or go through a registered cab company…”
I was made aware of this situation by my friend’s Facebook status in the early hours of the morning, “…I have just been f-ing kidnapped in Cape Town. Strangled. Held at knife point. Had to kick and roll myself out the f-ing car to escape. No phone. Please please call 083 — —- to come rescue me. I don’t know anyone’s numbers.”
Please ladies, be careful out there. As is suggested above, rather get Uber or call on a reputable taxi service such as Excite Taxis, Unicab or Intercab to name a few. DO NOT get in the taxis that are just waiting outside of a place unless you are with a group of people.
This story is based on status updates from my personal Facebook feed and no actual report has yet been released. My friend will be on Cape Talk today after 13:00 to speak about her ordeal.
UPDATE:
Sandra appeared on Cape Talk and spoke about her incident. She and her friend got in to the taxi in Loop Street. It was a taxi with a yellow taxi sign and had a meter but was not associated with a bigger corporation. Once her friend had been dropped off and Sandra was alone in the cab, the drive attacked her. He cable tied her hands together and she managed to get out of the front passenger seat by kicking the door and jump out of the car while it was still moving. She was helped by a gentleman on High Level Road. Sandra is currently at the police station following up with the incident to try and find the culprit.
Cape Talk podcast http://bit.ly/1w9ZtbQ
SANDRA’S WORDS:
“Here are the details of what happened on Sunday morning. Ash and I were leaving ERA on loop street at around 1:30 am to go home. Stupidly we got inside a taxi outside and not an UBER. It was a proper ‘cab’ with a meter. We went to Fresnaye to drop Ash off and I then continued on to town to where my friend Jeannette was. I was texting her to say I was on my way and would meet her there in 5 minutes. The cab driver and I discussed payment I told him I had cash or a card whatever he preferred. He was a coloured male between the ages of 30-40. He spoke English to me the whole time. I was still looking at my phone texting and not paying attention when the car stopped. It looked like we were in Bo Kaap. He launched back at me and grabbed my hair and pulled my face towards the gear box so my body was half in the back seat and the rest over the handbrake. I started to panic as he started driving. I struggled and he had too firm a grip on my hair for me to do anything. When he put the car in gear I kept hitting it out so he couldn’t drive and messing up his gear box. At some point he stopped to cable tie my hands together and told me to stop struggling or he would slit my throat and that he had a knife and would kill me if I don’t stop moving around.
At this point I realised how serious the situation was. I told him I had money I could give him whatever he wanted. He told me to shut up. He pulled my head closer onto his lap so I couldn’t reach the gear box and continued driving. I managed to climb onto the front seat and asked him why he was doing this. He told me to shut up and not move and continued to threaten me.
At this point I turned my head over to find the door handle and began kicking it with my toes. Luckily I was wearing flat shoes. When he realised what I was doing he started shouting at me ‘hey stop that’ and punched my face a few times. I have a massive lump on my forehead from that.
I managed to open the door and launch myself out the car while he was still driving. I was on Cavalcade road in green point right at the top by High Level. I used to live in the apartment block right there and so knew exactly where I was.
I started screaming and shouting and luckily a gentleman and his girlfriend came out of their house to find me on the street. They took me in, phoned the police and tried to contact someone who could come and pick me up.
There are a few things that worked in my favour. Firstly knocking the gears out so he couldn’t drive. Secondly climbing into the front seat. Thirdly the fact that I was wearing flat sandals that had straps around my ankle so they wouldn’t fall off. And lastly realising that if I am going to die I would rather go down with a fight than somewhere helpless tied up and not knowing where I was. I didn’t care at that point if he stabbed me or cut my throat like he said he was going to.
He was not after money. I had two credit cards in my bag one without a pin and a debit card. Only one transaction of R50 was made on one card.
I had find my iPhone and could see where he went. The police came over and did nothing not even take a statement. I have been to the hospital and the police now. Hopefully this person can be caught and stopped from doing it again.
PLEASE LADIES DO NOT USE A CAB OTHER THAN UBER. AND LET YOUR FRIENDS KNOW WHO YOUR DRIVER IS!!!” – Sandra Kim