Bikejacking @Bluehills Kyalami

[nathrix]

06:50 AM this morning my riding buddy Troy and I were ambushed just before you get to the airfield in Bluehills, Kyalami.

 

We were riding next to each other when we noticed three black gents standing on the corner on top of the hill. Two of them started walking down towards us when they noticed us. It all looked normal as we do pass many people walking on our usual morning rides. What was strange though was that they walked behind one another and not next to each other as they normally do. We immediately found this very strange. By this time Troy was a wheel length ahead of me on my left. Then the 3rd guy who remained on the corner bent down and looked as he was reaching for a rock while his other hand was reaching for something from inside his jacket. I just said a loud sh!!!!!t and I did a quick 180 u-turn jump/turn and cranked it! The 2nd guy realized I noticed what they were up to when I turned and he pulled out a mother of a knife while he started running at full speed towards me while I was cranking on the pedals HARD towards the opposite direction. He (2nd guy) was running behind me stabbing at me while I was sprinting for my life. Then I noticed the 1st guy that had past us moments before had swung around and was reaching for his knife and I was riding at pace towards him now with the 2nd guy wielding a knife running behind me. I just though by myself, if they catch me now I'm dead and I decided to aim straight for the 1st guy thinking that 95kg at speed into him will cause some serious injury to him! Crazy, I know, but everything happened so bloody FAST! The 1st guys eyes nearly popped out of his head and jumped out of the way while the 2nd guy behind me gave up the chase. When I was safe I stopped, turned to look where Troy was while pulling out my phone to call the area security. By that time Troy calmly handed over his bike and old mobile phone and fortunately was unharmed, walking in my direction. The 1st and 2nd thug raced passed Troy towards the 3rd guy and they escaped through the airfield section/bush towards Summit Road.

 

2011 S-Works Epic 29er hijacked (insured):

Size Large

American Classic wheels

Maxxis Crossmark LUST - front and rear

X0 groupset

Garmin Edge 500

Red Avid Elixir CR brakes

 

 

 

Here's the garmin map of this mornings ride:

Edited June 18, 2011 by nathrix™ ® ©

[raptor]

Glad you guys are ok, it seems nowadays it more dangerous off road than on

[Mojoman]

Terrible. At least you are OK.

[Christopher Brunsdon]

What a bummer but glad you guys are OK

[Seeker911]

Thats why I'm sitting at home behind my keyboard doing some work instead of riding !!!! think its time to move on this sh!t is just totally getting out of hand

[Wyatt Earp]

:cursing:

And it took me forever to get that bike for him, glad you guys escaped unscathed .

Edited June 18, 2011 by Dangle

[King_Crispy]

Thats just utter bullsh1t. We need to find the swines that are buying/ordering the stolen bikes and sort them out properly.

Who is creating the market? It can't carry on like this

[EigerSA]

it seems things are really getting out of hand, a guy swinging a knife around like that is obviously not concerned with hurting/killing anyone! Glad you're ok and no one was hurt though.

[Seeker911]

Thats just utter bullsh1t. We need to find the swines that are buying/ordering the stolen bikes and sort them out properly.

Who is creating the market? It can't carry on like this

 

Yes I totally agree. There is no way those guys are gonna use that bike themselves. That Specialized is in no way an ordinary bike. Someone is buying stolen bikes from these thugs and creating a market for stolen goods. Whoever is buying these bikes is well organized and probably has a distribution network going on. Someone MUST know something. Lets get these guys and sort them out.

 

[EigerSA]

i'm not sure that's the case. i reckon it's most likely opportunistic crimes, mtb'ers are either by themselves on the ride or in smallish groups. they don't ride in public places, but in the bush and they carry at least a cellphone and maybe some cash. mtb'ers are easy targets. the bikes are probably ridden around in the townships or stashed somewhere for a while before the guy attempts to sell it to a pawnshop or something; which is exactly what was found in Giba some time ago. at the end of the day, try not to be an easy target is the only thing that'll work unfortunately.

 

"sorting" the guys out might just end up making things worse, next time round the guys may decide to kill rather than scare or wound.

[nathrix]

We went and reported this incident at the Midrand police station this morning. Sms will be sent to my friends phone with the case number.

 

I was informed by a another friend that yesterday two ladies were attacked in the same area. Fortunately someone in a vehicle noticed what happened and gave chase. The attackers dropped the bicycles and ran away. This looks like a syndicate working in the area. They have crossed over from Erasmia Police jurisdiction, over Summit road into Midrand area. The insurance companies are loosing allot of money in payouts. If I were them I would pay investigators to start investigating as it will work out cheaper to catch these robbers then all the claims they have to pay out. These robbers most probably sell it to a master mind/contact for not more then R1000 as they do not really know the true value of these bicycles. I'm sure they will be back for more. Just my 2 cents.

[bikekid]

@nathrix - I reckon you or your mate should get in touch with Carte Blanche so they can run a story on this incident and the many others listed on the Hub. With the frequency of these hijackings (as someone else pointed out) they are feeding an active market with probably some sort of syndicate involved. I'm pretty sure Carte Blanche will get to the bottom of it..

[onetrackmind]

@nathrix - I reckon you or your mate should get in touch with Carte Blanche so they can run a story on this incident and the many others listed on the Hub. With the frequency of these hijackings (as someone else pointed out) they are feeding an active market with probably some sort of syndicate involved. I'm pretty sure Carte Blanche will get to the bottom of it..

I kinda lost faith in Carte Blanche when they managed to sell USN down the river, and put those doping rugger buggers on a pedestal. I don't think their goal is to find the truth, just a story that will help raitings. So, yes, they probably would run the story, I just wouldn't hold my breath on it achieving anything.

[nathrix]

Think about it a little bit.

 

Who stands to loose the most money here?

 

Insurance companies.

 

The insurance companies should stand together and start investigating who these people/syndicates are, check the townships, check the boarders, get decoys out on bicycles and track them somehow.

 

It will be money well spent. At this rate the insurance companies stand to loose millions of rands.

 

It's not getting better, it's not going to get better, it's getting worse because nothing significant is being done about it.

 

It won't help insurance companies to increase their premiums at the rate at which the bicycle hijackings are occurring.

 

This is currently the best solution I can think of. Who here works in insurance? Forward this link to your superiors if they want to save lots of money, but most importantly, HUMAN LIVES.

 

Don't go out and buy guns and pepper spray and all kinds of stuff. You are just putting yourself and others at risk. I'll be honest, if I had a gun this morning it would have helped. But in most other circumstances I don't think it would. it happens so fast. A gun is not a solution to the problem, just perhaps peace of mind IF you are able to use it in time.

[spaso9]

jees, you have had bad luck!

saw your pot about being jacked in stellenbosch also: https://community.bikehub.co.za/topic/104384-assulted-and-bike-jacked/

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Phew, Blue Hills isnt far from my little civvy fleapit so thats quite concerning.

 

I dont think bicycles are a significant business for Insurance companies or they would have started doing something pro-actively, but thats not really the point is it, its more about the possible personal injury or, lets not consider it death of the rider.

 

For me, and I think I have said it before, I carry a gun and will continue to do so, they dont always get the opportunity to knock you down or surprise you and like in your case today, I think a firearm would have gotton you the bike back, or at least scared them off, it works both ways, people are always saying if they think you may have a firearm they may do more injury, but if they know you may have a firearm and can do them some serious injury first, maybe they wont attack you in the first place.