[imagesource: YouTube /News24]

Just as we read about how hijacking is on the rise nationwide, an attempted hijacking in Johannesburg makes the news.

On Saturday night, Annette Deppe, a councillor in Johannesburg, and her family were returning home after a night spent celebrating her upcoming birthday, per News24.

But they had to make a stop first to drop off their son at a friend’s Lonehill housing complex, not knowing that it would be the exact spot of an attempted hijacking.

The sparkling white Range Rover entered the driveway and was waiting for the security to assist with a number for her son’s friend.

She wasn’t used to driving her husband’s car and said that she has “always been an alert driver at night”.

At that point, three armed men drove up behind her. One approached her window, while another went to the passenger window where her husband sat.

CCTV footage of the ordeal shows Deppe’s husband lashing out at the suspect through the window.

Meanwhile, Deppe managed to reverse a little at this point, at the instruction of her husband and son still in the car.

She recounts the moment:

“I moved back and, a few minutes later, a guy came back and hit me over the head with his gun. I then put my foot on the accelerator and reversed, pushing them back behind me.”

The car that the suspects were driving moved away while one of the men fired his gun at Deppe as she tried to drive off.

As fate or karma or coincidence would have it, the gun jammed and the ordeal ended there:

Deppe could tell that the hijackers wanted the car because they were careful not to damage it, so reversing the car and threatening to scratch it was clearly the hijackers’ weak spot.

Well, Deppe made it through with just a bump on her head, although she will seek trauma counselling.

Captain Mavela Masondo said that “two live 9mm ammunition and one cartridge was found at the scene” but nobody had been arrested yet.

[source:news24]