The Owner: Niel Steyl
A vehicle is more than just transport for some owners – they get attached to their vehicles, they become part of the family and they are not willing to just let them go! They do not merely claim from the insurer and find a new vehicle!
We would like to share the story from one such owner, Niel Steyl who was not willing to just let his bakkie go – resulting in a 19 Day Bakkie Hunt!
The 19 Day Bakkie Hunt
My wife and I are the proud owners of a 1988 Hilux double cab bakkie. This bakkie has been in the family for 26 years!
I am an airline pilot and I often need to be dropped off and picked up from OR Tambo Airport at odd hours of the day and night.
In January 2013, I decided to employ a young Malawian (Frank Nkandawire) with a drivers license to work at my house. The fact that he had a drivers license was very handy, because it enabled him to double up as a driver.
He regularly drove me to OR Tambo INTL and back over the last year and a half.
On the 2nd of May this year, my wife and I flew back from Atlanta (USA) to OR Tambo.
We had arranged that Frank pick us up at the airport at 5pm.
After we arrived, I phoned Frank to tell him that we are there, but found it strange that Frank’s phone went directly to voice mail. This has never happened before. After 20 minutes of trying to contact him on the phone, I realized that he was definitely not at the airport, and we had to make another plan to get home.
After we arrived back in Kosmos, I went to the Hartbeespoort Police Station, to try and find out if Frank had been in an accident somewhere.
Warrant Officer Putter helped me, and we phoned all the police stations between Kosmos and OR Tambo. (…………….NOTHING)
On Saturday I took a picture of Frank to the police, and reported him as a missing person.
By Sunday, I started believing the worst possible thing that could have happened to Frank and the bakkie, has actually happened. FRANK STOLE OUR BAKKIE, and he is on the run with it.
Starting the Search
On Tuesday 6 May, I decided, the only way for me to recover our bakkie, is to find it myself. I started asking questions to everyone who new Frank, and the bakkie.
Some information indicated that he may be in the Thabazimbi district with the bakkie. By this stage Detective Lukas Matshepe, from the SAP at Hartbeespoort, started assisting me in my search. The 2 of us went to Thabazimbi, and searched every little village, beer hall, taxi rank etc in the area.
On 8 May we went to Thabazimbi for a 2nd time, and again searched the area thoroughly.
Then we got word that the bakkie was now in Lepalale (Ellisras). We went to Ellisras, and thoroughly checked through every little village, but could not find him.
We came back to the dam, and I started working the area around the dam again, trying to talk to someone that knew Frank, or has seen the Bakkie.
Cellular phone and vehicle recovery
Fortunately, Frankie is not a career criminal, and he was making a huge mistake, to keep using his cell phone, with the same number as he has always had.
The police told me that it is possible to trace his phone, but to get the permission for this, a judge would have a sign a warrant, and that will take a long time.
Lizanne found out about a private detective company in JNB, that could do this for us, at a price.
Lukas Matshepe, Niel Steyl and Kealeboga Benedict Bohelo
On Friday afternoon 16 May, I went with Detective Lukas Matsheka, and Detective Kealeboga Benedict Bohelo, to Diepsloot, and we got the private company to trace the phone for us.
At 15:30 on Friday afternoon the detectives, gave me the co-ordinates, of a spot where the phone was. Unfortunately the accuracy of the phone trace is not 100%, but the phone is guaranteed to be within a 200m radius of a specific spot. The spot turned out to be in Betty Street, Jeppe Town, Johannesburg.
We went straight there, and started to search the area. At around 10pm, I thought that maybe he had moved to another area, and asked them to give me another “ping”.
Dawie from the PI company phoned me back half an hour later, and said, the phone is still in exactly the same location. We went from pub to pub to pub, into various different basements and even searched a few apartment buildings. By midnight we decided to call it quits for the night, have a beer, and go to sleep.
The area where the phone was located, was just too densely populated, and made it difficult for us to pinpoint him.
On Tuesday afternoon, 20 May I went back to same location, and walked the streets for another hour, but still with no luck, but our luck was about to turn……………….
On Wednesday afternoon 21 May, 19 days after Frank stole our bakkie, I got another “ping” from Frank’s phone, and this time he was in Park Station, downtown JNB,
This was a better more open area to search. Myself (Lowaldo Vd Merwe my co-pilot) and detectives Lukas and Kealeboga, shot through to Park Station. After searching through the station for an hour, the detectives spotted Frank, and arrested him. I asked him, where my bakkie was……… He replied…… Betty Street, Jeppe Town !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bakkie found at Jeppe Town
When we reached the bakkie, there was a moment of confusion as to who is looking after Frankie, and he jumped out the Fortuner, and attempted an escape. My young friend and co-pilot Lowaldo Van Der Merwe, made a 100m dash down Market Street and tackled Frankie, rugby style, on the tarmac,
We got the bakkie out of a basement, and drove it back to Hartbeespoort.
During the long ride back to the dam, with Frank handcuffed in the back of our Fortuner, I had the time to carefully explain to Frank, that even if it took me 10 years, and if I had to travel to his home town of Mzuzu, in Malawi, I was never going to give up, until I found him. But if I had to travel all the way up there, I would have been a bit angrier, and the end of this episode would have been a bit messy.
As things stand now, our Hilux, is back in its garage at home in Kosmos, and Frank is in a holding cell awaiting trial.
Also view:
Car Insurance and Road Safety in South Africa
Car Insurance Advice / Education and Road Safety in South Africa