In a fit of rage and adrenaline, Tracey-Lee Grace, of Parklands, leapt from her car on the Malibongwe Drive stretch of the N7 near Dunoon and shouted at the man who hurled a rock through her passenger window and grabbed her cellphone.
In that moment, she says, as she stood next to her car, pulling at her hair and shouting hysterically as the man ran off into a Dunoon shanty town, she noticed other motorists looking at her as if she were going crazy and as if nothing had happened.
It was enough, she says, to start second-guessing herself, wondering whether the incident had happened.
“Can you believe it? I sat there, with a shattered window, and they went on as if nothing happened. Are these road users used to this behaviour?”
The incident happened on Friday March 7, just after 4pm.
Choked with emotion, she said she had not reported it to the police because she believed nothing would come of it. “They’ll take my statement, and then what happens next? I am a 26-year-old who will probably have this encounter more than once in my life because nothing is being done.”
On Tuesday March 7, Jenna Meyer, of Edgemead, was travelling along the N7, heading to Table View, when a rock shattered the passenger-side window, and a man in a grey hoodie climbed halfway through her window and grabbed her phone from the middle console.
“It was around 5:30pm in the evening. And the next minute, I saw blood streaming from my hand from the shattered window.”
The man ran off into Dunoon. She wanted to follow him, but her car was boxed in by other vehicles.
“So I pressed hard on my hooter and held up my bleeding hand because I was so angry, and I forced my way out of the backed-up traffic.”
She said she knew about smash-and-grabs happening at that spot but didn’t think it likely someone would strike at that time. “It was just my luck.”
She said she had not reported the incident to the police because she had had to have an unrelated surgery the next day, but she would do so once she had recovered.
More police visibility and CCTV cameras were needed along the N7 near Dunoon, she said.
“There were loads of people standing on the side of the road. They didn’t even flinch and watched as the attack happened.”
Laura Groenewald, of Richwood, and her 13-year-old daughter came under attack on the same highway on Wednesday February 28.
A “well-dressed” man smashed the passenger-side window next to her daughter and grabbed her daughter’s phone from her lap.
Ms Groenewald said she had rushed to Table View police station, where officers had taken down her statement, but she had not yet received an update on the case.
“This incident has affected how we carry out our daily lives now. I no longer go out at night. My daughter and I will be speaking to a professional because we are traumatised.“
Police have urged motorists to be extra vigilant when driving through Dunoon along the N7 as smash-and-grabs have shot up.
Table View police spokesperson Captain Adriana Chandler confirmed police were investigating Ms Groenewald’s case and advised motorists to hide their cellphones while driving in any area.
Milnerton police spokesperson Captain Nopaya Madiyibi said the station could not provide Tabletalk with statistics for smash-and-grab cases, but police were doing intensive patrols along Malibongwe Drive.
“Several incidents of smash and grab have been reported. We advise people using that route to be vigilant at all times, and that they must not display their valuables as that can attract the criminals.”
City Metro Police spokesperson Ruth Solomons said the off-ramp into Malibongwe Drive was a smash-and-grab hot spot.
“Metro Police officers work closely with their Law Enforcement and Traffic Service counterparts with regards to enforcement and crime-prevention patrols,” she said, adding that there had also been several public-awareness drives.
