Anti-hijack squad kicks in: Toddler returned after ride with car thieves
Published: October 5, 2005
A mother’s worst nightmare unfolded in front of her eyes yesterday as she watched thieves drive off with her 20-month-old son, strapped into the family car.
However, her agony was short-lived as little Henry le Roux was found toddling in the traffic and rescued.
An hour earlier the child had been kidnapped by two men who raced off in the car she had left idling in the driveway.
“It was just a minute - that’s all it took,” said Carla le Roux.
The mother was on her way to work when she realised she had forgotten Henry’s food. Stopping in the driveway, she ran inside to fetch her son’s bottle. On her return, she saw the thieves jump into her Hyundai and drive off. She and her husband Wayne gave chase in his bakkie, but lost the thieves when they skipped a robot.
Oblivious to the danger or his abductors’ intentions, Henry was abandoned at a busy intersection.
His life was saved by a group of women who spotted him toddling in front of speeding cars.
The women ran to the nearby police station, whose members, along with every other police station in Tshwane, had been put on alert about the missing child.
Members of the anti-hijacking task team arrested the thieves with the help of a helicopter, which had traced the vehicle through its tracking device.
The suspects were caught in a shack in Tembisa. A second car stolen in Pretoria last month was parked behind the shack.
Le Roux said she had never been so happy. “It is a miracle, a sheer miracle that I can hug my baby today,” she said.
His emotional father, who wept when his son was handed back to him, was too overwhelmed to talk to the media.
“The women who found our son are angels … we will never be able to say thank you enough,” Le Roux said.
Family friend Louise van Aswagen said she could not believe how hard the authorities had worked.
“It was as though the entire police service and Metro Police force dropped everything … to search for Henry. They worked flat out as if it were their own child,” she said.
Proud Pretoria area commissioner Amon Mashigo said of his staff: “They are true heroes and this will go a long way to restoring confidence in the police service.”
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