A KZN woman abducted by robbers after she walked in on them at her home, spent the night hiding in a forest.
|||Durban - An estate agent who was abducted by robbers after she walked in on them at her Westville home, spent the night hiding in a forest.
When the robbers dropped her off, they took her jacket and shoes, leaving her with a thin T-shirt and tights. She was rescued cold and hungry by an Inanda pastor at 5am.
Caron Whateley was reunited with her family and friends at 8am on Friday, after private investigator Brad Nathanson and police fetched her from the pastor’s home.
The churchman had called Whateley’s boyfriend, who was away on business in Mbombela (Nelspruit), and alerted him to her whereabouts.
Bigboy Mthethwa, a local pastor at Emachobeni, said he got the shock of his life when he saw the woman running out of the forest towards his minibus: “I thought that she was crazy. The forest is near a cemetery and I was wondering what she was doing there so early in the morning.”
Children who attended his crèche were in his minibus.
Mthethwa said Whateley was extremely cold. “I took her home and my wife put her next to the heater to get her warm. She also gave her coffee and porridge. After a while she started to feel better and told us what happened,” he said.
Mthethwa said he felt hurt that she had spent the night alone in the cold forest.
“What kind of world are we really living in? Crime is really getting out of hand. They even took her jacket and shoes.”
He said he was very happy that he was there to help her.
SAPS spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, said no arrests had been made.
Nathanson said Whateley had gone out to dinner with friends to a Westville restaurant and had left to go home about 10:30pm.
She had promised a friend, Wayne Ashford, that she would call him when she got home.
When Ashford, a former policeman, did not hear from her he became concerned. Nathanson said this prompted him to go to her Rockdale Avenue home.
“He found that her car, a Toyota Yaris, was not in the yard. But the house lights were on. He knocked on the door several times. There was no answer.”
Ashford contacted the private detective: “When he contacted me, I too feared the worst,” Nathanson said.
He said within minutes, metro police, SAPS and the Kloof Community Policing Forum members mobilised.
“Within an hour or so I received information that the suspects were in the KwaDabeka area, just outside Pinetown. We saturated the area and lay in wait.”
Nathanson was then alerted by Whateley’s boyfriend that R1 800 had been withdrawn from his account at an ATM in New Germany. His card had been in Whateley’s wallet.
Whateley’s car was spotted at 1am by metro police in KwaDabeka. Police pursued it, but the suspects abandoned it and ran into nearby bushes.
Frustrated, Nathanson said he returned to Whateley’s house, where he discovered there had been a robbery. “A side window had been smashed and her stuff was lying in the yard.
“When I fetched her, she said as she drove into the yard she was accosted by four suspects. They warned her to be quiet and pushed her into the car before driving off.”
He said Whateley said the men had driven around for a while before demanding pin codes to her cards.
“They told her if they got enough of cash they would let her go. She bravely asked them why they were leading a life of crime. They said it was because they were unemployed and had no money.”
A further R3 000 was withdrawn at an ATM at 3am.
Nathanson said Whateley’s greatest relief was that she had not been sexually assaulted. “She picked up a couple of Zulu words that they were throwing about. When she asked the pastor’s wife what they meant, one turned out to be rape.”
Nathanson said he was warmed by the goodwill of the communities.
“It was a community effort. Everyone came together. This could have turned out ugly. But through determination and the goodwill of the pastor, Caron is safe.”
Daily News