His head was shoved between his legs, a handgun was jabbed into his ribs
and another stuck against his temple – Ryan Pickford was convinced he was going
to die.
The most recent victim of a blue-light gang, Pickford was held at
gunpoint on Friday night for two hours by men claiming to be police officers –
in full police uniform.
Pickford had just visited his wife and three-week-old son, who is in
high care at the Morningside clinic, on Friday evening when the terrifying
experience began that would see him lose his Porsche, his dignity and his trust
in the police.
Driving past Leeuwkop Prison on Main Road in Bryanston just before 8pm,
Pickford noticed a white Golf GTI following him. The vehicle’s blue lights
began flashing, signalling him to pull over.
Two men dressed in police uniforms, wearing bullet-proof vests and
wielding R5 rifles insisted on searching his car. During what the men called a
“routine search”, another man wearing a police bib approached Pickford’s car
from the side of the road.
Pickford, 35, then called his sister to tell her that the police were
threatening to arrest him if he did not accompany them to the nearest roadblock
for a breathalyser test.
When he agreed, but said he would drive his own car, Pickford was told
he was going to be arrested. When he asked why, one of the “officers”
handcuffed him and pushed him into the back seat of the Golf.
He watched helplessly as the man in the police bib climbed into his
Porsche and drove off. Seated between two other men, who were not in police
uniform but wielding handguns, his captors informed him that he was being
hijacked. While the two men in the back seat pushed his head down with
black-gloved hands, the two uniformed hijackers sat in the front. One started
the car and began driving.
Pickford pleaded for his life, saying they could have his car. “I told
them about my two kids and wife, and how I needed to be with them.”
At first, the men were reassuring, telling him he wouldn’t be hurt if he
didn’t “f*** up”, and that their own children needed to survive as well. But
when his sister began calling on his cellphone, the two handguns were pointed
at his head and heart. He was told to tell his sister that he was with the
police and that nothing was wrong.
After 30 minutes of driving, being interrogated about the cars he drove
and his banking details, Pickford began to get anxious. The men were getting
increasingly hostile, telling him he would be shoved into the car’s boot,
dropped off in the centre of Alexandra, or killed, if he did not co-operate.
“I felt a strange calmness, and I just felt like this was going to be
the end,” he said.
He asked why police officers would do this. Pickford remembers saying
how he said they were meant to “serve and protect”, a statement that offended
his hijackers.
“Who do you think we are? Your servants?” the driver asked.
At around 10pm, the men pulled over in the veld in Centurion, took his
watch and cellphone, and told him to run deep into the veld and lie down.
Pickford said he thought this would be the moment he would be killed, having
seen his hijackers’ faces. But after lying own for several minutes, the men
sped off.
Exhausted and trembling, Pickford made his way to a nearby warehouse,
where he found security guards, who did their best to help him. It was after
midnight by the time he had filed his case with the Midrand SAPS.
A traumatised Pickford is convinced it was police officers who committed
the crime – not impersonators. Pickford said he recognised the face of one as a
policeman at another roadblock.
“I swore to myself I wouldn’t just lie down and take this… If I can help
to save another life (by reporting the case to police), then I will keep
pushing this.
“You’re meant to trust them, like doctors or teachers. How will I ever
stop at a roadblock again?”
Tracker investigators think a syndicate is at work in the northern
suburbs targeting expensive cars. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an
investigator said there had been eight high-end vehicle hijackings in the past
three weeks.
Police spokesman Katlego Mogale was not available for comment.
l If you have been the victim of a blue-light gang – police
impersonators or otherwise – please contact The Star.
