Police
didn't know where Lion's Head was - mugging victim
21 July, 02:49 PM
Jenna Etheridge, News24
Cape
Town – Two young, obviously fit muggers brazenly ran down a Lion’s Head trail
in broad daylight at the weekend, stopping groups of tourists along the way to
steal their belongings before carrying on.
But
when the mugging victims tried to call the police toll-free line, the operator
allegedly had no idea where Lion's Head was.
One
of their victims, Stellenbosch University Phd student and researcher Asmus
Zoch, even mistook the muggers for trail runners from afar. Zoch joined
News24's Jenna Etheridge on Skype to discuss the incident. Watch the video
above for the full interview.
Zoch
is a trail runner himself and often hikes up the popular tourist attraction.
When
he saw all the backpacks and purses slung across the muggers' bodies, it became
clear that they were not using the trail for exercise.
To
make matters worse, the tourists claimed they tried calling the 10111 emergency
police number afterwards, but failed to get through or were greeted with an
automatic recording.
“When
we finally got to the police station, they didn’t know where Lion’s Head is so
they said: ‘Well, we don’t know where it is and we don’t know what to do’,”
Zoch claimed on Tuesday, adding that he didn’t know which police station they
were put through to.
A
South African man who was hiking with his Irish friend lower down the trail had
apparently managed to hold onto his phone. Zoch said the man then called his
sister to ask her to try the emergency number and she apparently experienced
the same thing.
Knife
against the neck
Zoch
had earlier decided that the perfect way to introduce his French friend to Cape
Town would be to hike up together, so they could enjoy the views.
Just
hours after the developmental researcher arrived in the city, they were held up
with a knife while ascending the mountain on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
“We
were just talking about inequality and racial problems and the next moment is
that these two guys come in front of us, and she thinks they are two friends of
mine because she doesn’t expect anything … they hold a knife against her neck
and tell her: ‘Give us everything or we kill you’,” he said.
Zoch,
who is in the socio-economic policy unit at Stellenbosch University, said
everything happened so fast.
When
he was in Durban earlier in the year, a mugger held a knife to his stomach and
demanded his belongings.
In
comparison, Zoch did not feel too threatened this time because he didn’t have a
knife pointed at him.
However,
he handed over his phone and his friend handed her backpack with her passport,
money and expensive jackets inside.
The
two had to organise new travelling documents so she could make her hiking trip
to the Alps later this week.
Mugging
conveyor belt
“They
started high up in the mountain and every hiker coming up the mountain, they
were on them in seconds. In that way, they could rob like nine people in
total,” he said.
The
other tourists, including some German women, lost everything, including cameras
and passports, Zoch said.
"They
were completely frustrated and desperate because they wanted to leave the
country in the evening and they couldn’t anymore.”
Zoch
claimed it took 25 minutes to get through to police, by which time the thieving
pair had long since disappeared into a forest on the Camp’s Bay side of the
mountain.
“We
just know that the police never showed up and that it took forever to get a
response.”
National
police spokesperson Vishnu Naidoo and the provincial police media office did
not immediately respond to the claims.
After
speaking to a ranger at the bottom of the trail, Zoch believed rangers may have
been focusing their efforts on two rescue missions with a helicopter in the
vicinity.
A
detective later informed them that some passports and backpacks were recovered
at the bottom of the mountain.
Beautiful
country
“In
the afternoon, we talked at the city police station and asked them why they
don’t know where Lion’s Head is. And they said that no, that’s not possible,
because everyone would know where it is.”
Zoch
said he would only hike up again if there were a lot of people, like during the
full moon hike, or if security improved. However, he would continue to invite
his friends to the country.
“My
girlfriend from Germany is still coming to visit me in a few months and I still
have other friends coming in November. This is such a beautiful country and it
would be such a shame if people don’t come here anymore. We need these people
for our tourism industry,” he said.
