WATCH | Alert family scrapes tree as they escape armed hijackers

Just because you have a gun, does not mean you should use it.

That was the message from Melissa Worman whose family was followed home by armed robbers in Midrand on Saturday around midday who tried to hijack their car.

“People are too quick in our country to want to go and defend themselves as opposed to just getting out of the situation which you were not going to win if you pulled arms on these guys,” Melissa said.

“Having a firearm when there are two others pointed at you and you are locked in a vehicle, is not the way out in all instances. Just because you have one (a gun) doesn’t mean you have to use it. There are other ways you can keep your family safe.”

Melissa’s husband Bretton was driving their Audi A6. Melissa was in the car along with their two-year-old daughter. They were returning home from the Mall of Africa in Midrand.

A video of the incident circulating on social media, and a second video supplied to TimesLIVE, shows Bretton slowly pulling up to their driveway before an Hyundai Creta stops behind them. An armed man jumps out from the passenger seat and dashes to the Audi. Before the armed robber reaches the Audi, Bretton turns right and scrapes a tree as he accelerates.

In the meantime, a second armed robber jumps out of the Hyundai who tries to follow the Audi before both retreat to the Hyundai. The Hyundai reverses and speeds off in the same direction as the Audi.

About 400m down the road, Bretton turned into the parking lot of a shopping centre and hooted to draw attention.

Melissa has been involved with their local CPF and said their family is always on alert.

“We have for many years been doing drills in the house. When we arrive home, we switch all our radios off. Everybody is quiet. You do what you need to do to make sure that you enter the [property] safely.”

She added: “If we weren’t that kind of family, the response would not have been that quick, especially when you have a little kid in the car and they scream and that sort of thing, it’s easy to be distracted.”

Melissa said their house is on a T-junction of a busy road, so they had no practical option but to turn into their driveway.

“Because in this instance we had a car behind us, my husband was alert from the get-go … He pulled into the driveway very slowly to make sure that if it was a situation that he could still have some gap to reverse.”

Melissa advised crime targets to “forget about your car”.

“It’s replaceable … You can’t go gunslinging to defend something which your insurance can pay for.”

Nobody in the Worman family was harmed during the attempted hijacking.