Hijackers restrain truck driver with cellphone charger cables before fleeing with boxes of chips

Robbers used cellphone chargers to tie up a truck driver’s legs and hands before they unhitched and stole a trailer packed with boxes of crisps in KwaZulu-Natal.

Reaction Unit SA director Prem Balram said the driver was found in the vehicle, which had been abandoned on the roadside in Phoenix, north of Durban on Saturday.

He said the driver was hijacked while travelling from Johannesburg to Durban.

“A pedestrian contacted the RUSA Phoenix operations centre. According to the caller, he noticed a white Scania truck parked on the roadside. The pedestrian informed the controller that he could hear someone calling out for assistance from inside the truck and that he was afraid to approach the vehicle,” he said. 

Balram said reaction officers were immediately dispatched.

“On arrival they discovered a man in the bunk behind the driver’s seat. His hands and legs were bound with cellphone chargers. Officers freed him of his restraints. He explained that he was travelling from Johannesburg when he stopped to purchase lunch at a service station. He was confronted by two armed suspects as he returned to his truck. The men forced him into the vehicle and bound his hands and legs with cellphone chargers before they drove off.

“They allegedly proceeded to an unknown location where they unhitched the trailer which was loaded with boxes of chips. They then travelled to Phoenix where they abandoned the truck,” Balram said

He added that the driver was not injured.

TimesLIVE