Cigarette robbery plan blown away

Would-be tobacco truck hijackers are seeing their butts.

A second botched cigarette van heist in Port Elizabeth in just four days led to the arrest of an alleged getaway driver after he reversed his bakkie into a police vehicle while stuck in traffic and trying to get away.

The latest bungled robbery – also involving a British American Tobacco (BAT) vehicle – comes after two men hijacked a van in Donkin Street, Central, on Friday but abandoned it when they failed to find their getaway car in the next street.

It is not known whether the incidents are linked.

In yesterday’s incident, the BAT van was hijacked outside White Rose Mini Market in Van Eck Street, Lorraine, at about 10am.

The driver was ambushed by two men after he had made a delivery at the store.

Police spokesman Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said one of the men forced the driver into the back while the other drove the van.

“They parked the van in Henry Botha Street [in Lorraine] and managed to off-load some of the stolen cigarettes into their getaway vehicle – an old Mazda bakkie,” she said.

A third person was behind the wheel of the bakkie.

While the boxes of cigarettes were being off-loaded, an Aisne Avenue resident spotted the men.

“I was on my way to work when I saw the [tobacco] van parked there and men in balaclavas carrying boxes to a bakkie,” the resident, who did not want to be named, said.

“I shouted at them and they panicked.” The man fired four shots. The driver of the getaway vehicle sped off and the two robbers fled on foot.

Within 15 minutes of the hijacking, the police K9 unit spotted the bakkie speeding down the William Moffett Expressway towards Cape Road. “The K9 unit turned around and gave chase,” Janse van Rensburg said.

“They caught up to the bakkie and it eventually got stuck in traffic.

“As the police officials got out to confront the driver, he tried to drive off but put the vehicle in reverse instead.

“The bakkie reversed into the police van behind it and the bakkie driver was arrested,” Janse van Rensburg said.

The bakkie had been reported stolen in New Brighton, she said.

“It appears that when the other two suspects heard the gunshots being fired at them, they fled down Henry Botha Road, across Circular Drive and into the bush.”

Police combed the surrounding bushes for the men without any luck.

Atlas Security operations manager Monty Montgomery said several residents had pushed their panic buttons when they heard the gunshots.

“My team responded to the alarms and found the hijacked van and the man who had intervened,” he said.

“The registration number [of the bakkie] was given to police.”

The estimated value of the cigarettes is believed to be more than R50 000.

On Friday, the driver of that BAT van was also taken hostage.

He told police later that the hijackers could not find their getaway car and abandoned the robbery attempt.

Police could not say whether the same robbers were involved in both incidents.

The 31-year-old Kwazakhele man arrested yesterday will appear in court tomorrow on charges of hijacking and possession of a stolen bakkie and cigarettes.