[imagesource: YouTube / News24]

As a mere bystander in this situation, you would have been forgiven for making a few wild assumptions.

An incident, which appeared to be a hijacking, took place on Saturday at the corner of Commissioner and Kruis streets in the Johannesburg CBD.

If you were there at the time, you would have seen four armed men jump out of a golden Toyota Corolla and force the driver to open the car doors.

The incident was caught on CCTV camera and shows the four armed men dragging the driver out of the car and slapping him while holding firearms.

News24 reported that the footage attracted the attention of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department’s (JMPD) undercover reaction unit, which investigated the matter:

It turns out, the e-hailing driver was being chased down because his customers thought he had tried to kidnap their two children:

JMPD spokesperson Xolani Fihla explained that a man had requested a ride for his wife and three children. When two of the children got into the car, the e-hailing driver allegedly noticed metered taxi drivers rushing to attack him.

“He sped off with two children, leaving the father, mother, and one child behind,” Fihla said. “It was further alleged that the father ran after the car, which was skipping red traffic lights,” he added.

In a panic to keep up with the e-hailing driver, the father flagged down the Toyota Corolla to help him get his children back.

Lucky for him, all the men in the Toyota Corolla were armed local security officials:

“It was discovered that the occupants of the Toyota Corolla were members of a local security company, their details, firearms as well as firearm permits were verified and all is in order,” Fihla added.

These security officers managed to capture the e-hailing driver (as you see in the video), who said that he had dropped the children off already a few traffic lights earlier.

Everybody was safe and sound in the end. Wild.

[source:news24]