Motorist pulls over, shot dead with own gun

I wrote recently about soccer tourists getting lost because of the ANC's insane obsession with changing tens of thousands of street names and sites and the dangers it would pose to people who wonder into dangerous areas to ask for directions.

We know it is also not advisable to be on your cellphone when you enter an off-ramp because your attention won't be focused on events around you. There have been many cases of people hijacked, robbed, windows smashed etc who were on their phones and not alert.

Then there are the instances where people run out of fuel and are stranded by the side of the road and get attacked (it happened to Joost van der Westhuizen).

And stories where accident victims are robbed. It is a fucked up country, isn't it? I remain an optimistic person and my message here is one of trying to stay hopeful but when one thinks about how presumed innocent situations become death-traps, then I despair.

And as if contending with this shit isn't enough, we have criminals placing tyres and rocks on roads to stop motorists and rob/hijack them. Our country is like a scene out of Mad Max.

- - -

Beeld: 3/10/2008 - Wake up! Wake up!
IOL: 3/10/2008- Is this the return of highway robberies?

A 32-year-old man was shot dead with his own gun on Thursday morning when he stopped after hitting rocks placed across the N1 North highway, and was ambushed by four hijackers.

Details of the incident were sketchy on Thursday morning as detectives worked on the scene, situated between the Malibongwe and William Nichol offramps.

Paramedic Mark Stokoe of Netcare 911 said the botched hijacking happened after a man and his wife who were driving on the N1 North at about 3.45am hit the rocks placed across the highway.

He said according to an account given to paramedics by the wife, the couple had pulled over with a puncture and the woman had remained seated in the car while her husband got out to change the tyre.

"Apparently about four guys were waiting for them and they ambushed him. There was a scuffle and during the fight a shot went off. The man was hit in the lower back," Stokoe told The Star.

The woman remained seated in the car and was not physically harmed during the attack. The attackers fled suddenly, apparently taking only the victim's gun.

"The motorist died on the scene before anyone arrived," Stokoe said.

Gauteng police spokesperson Captain Julia Claassen confirmed that the couple had hit a rock and got a flat tyre. She said the man, who was carrying a firearm, was in the process of changing the tyre when he was overpowered by men who grabbed his gun and shot him during a scuffle.