Now 5 years down the road, and time to fix things, so I serviced the radiator and replaced the battery, rear coils, front shocks top mounting rubbers & water pipes. All still needed was 2 new rear tyres. So Monday, my son comes and borrows it, leaves his old Fiesta here and asks me to get the Fiesta in for a service.
Tuesday morning he goes to a friend's house near Jeppe Girls and parks it in the driveway. They are busy cleaning the driveway and cutting the lawn, so he parks it outside in the street so they can load the garden clippings on the friends bakkie (garage door from the street into the property is closed).
They hear a car start, but pay no attention to it, a minute later they hear it drive off and recognise it as the automatic Corolla. They run out, the car is gone and has turned at the corner. GONE!!!
The car had remote locking and a gearlock (gear lever in Park position), but no alarm and no tracking!
This was at 12h00, so we report it (phoned 10111 and Cleveland police were there within half an hour) and get the Etag cancelled with SANRAL. At the same time we ask if it has gone through a gantry, and it had not. It was put onto the Police's NPR (Number Plate Recognition) system by Bedfordview cops through a contact with their CPF.
We phoned SANRAL again at about 6pm, and this time it had, it went through the Stork Gantry on the N1, next to Diepkloof in Soweto. They obviously went into Soweto via Bara.
I would say it is gone!! I am very sad and heartsore, but even if found, it will be damaged and will probably get police engine and chassis numbers.
It was spotless, not even a mark on the seats, and had done just 210,000km. It is insured (balance of 3rd party, fire and theft) for "market value" which will probably be R7500..... Fortunately I had not put on the new tyres yet!!!!
I had an offer from a JMPD officer for R45k about 6 months ago, and he was serious. To me it was worth much more....
Maybe I should take the shotgun with 20 or 30 shells (no rifling tell tale markings in shotgun buckshot!!) and go driving around, looking for it in Soweto....... Any volunteers?
