Police don’t help pensioners after attack on
highway
Horror ordeal for pensioners.
24 hours ago
The SAPS have disappointed
local pensioners after they offered them no help.
A Saturday evening drive home turned into a
nightmarish experience for two Delville pensioners, when they were attacked on
the highway.
William (69) and Woolbridge (70) Gilbert were
travelling home on the N3 highway, at about 9.15pm, last Saturday.
They had just passed the Van Buuren Road
off-ramp and were heading towards the Cydonia Road bridge when they noticed a
car on the left side of the road and then hit a rock.
“The rock had deflected off the man’s vehicle
into our lane and my wife couldn’t avoid it; there were cars in the lane next
to us, so we couldn’t move,” said William.
The rock smashed their car’s sump and damaged
other parts of the vehicle.
The airbags deployed and the car was filled
with gas and powder from them.
“I told my wife to pull over and we got out
of the car to let out all the fumes,” William explained.
“Woolbridge was using her cellphone to call
someone for assistance, and I went to have a look at all the oil that was
spilling from the car.
“All of a sudden there was a man in dark
clothing next to me.
“He produced a gun and told me to give him
all our money.”
William did not take kindly to this request
and told the man to get lost.
“At this point things got a bit crazy,” he
said.
“The man pointed the pistol at my chest and
fired, but it just clicked; he then repeated this two more times, but both
times the gun just clicked.”
The assailant then went for Woolbridge and
tried to wrestle her cellphone from her.
She pushed him and William began to chase
him.
The man grabbed Woolbridge’s handbag from the
car and ran off across the highway.
William gave chase, but he couldn’t climb
over the barrier over which the assailant had jumped.
“I returned to my wife and she pointed out
people with torches in the trees on the opposite side of the highway,” he said.
“They were obviously going through her
handbag.”
A few moments later a police car stopped next
to the couple and William dashed to the vehicle, to tell the police what had
happened.
“I told them we had been attacked and that
the man had tried to shoot me,” William said.
“I also pointed out the torches in the trees
and told them that that was where the assailant was.”
William was shocked and disappointed by the
SAPS’s response.
“They said nothing, they didn’t get out of
their vehicle and they didn’t call for back-up or anything,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe that the police were not
going to do anything at all to assist us.”
When a tow truck arrived on the scene shortly
afterwards, to assist the man who had originally hit the rock, the police just
drove away.
“They just disappeared into the night,
leaving us to fend for ourselves,” William said.
William then spoke to the man who had
originally hit the rock and he said that the assailant had tried to rob him,
too.
During the course of the pensioners’ ordeal a
young man driving a silver car also stopped.
“We want to thank this young gentleman for
his great act of kindness,” William said.
“He stood with my wife and ‘guarded’ her
until we could tow the car away.
“He was very brave and we thank him from the
bottom of our hearts.”
The couple arranged for their car to be towed
home and then they went to Pretoria to stay with family for the night.
The next day William and his step-son-in-law,
Wynand Britz, returned to the scene where they had seen the torches the night
before, and found Woolbridge’s handbag.
The only thing missing from it was her ID
book.
“I am very angry with the police for not
helping us that evening,” William said.
“I think this type of service is beyond bad.
“We should rather have security companies
patrolling the highways; at least we know they would do something to assist.
“This is not a police force; they do not have
a calling to their work.”
Both William and Woolbridge have decided to
go for counselling after their ordeal.
