A woman from Hermanus had a close call when a man threw a large piece of concrete through her window as she was driving through the centre of town last week.
Nadine Smit, a resident of Voëlklip, said she was driving near the Hermanus Police Station when she noticed the man lift a large object.
The large piece of concrete completely shattered her left rear window. “If it had gone through the windscreen I would have been seriously injured,” Smit said. “Had anybody been sitting at the back of the car they would have sustained grievous bodily harm if the rock had hit them.”
After seeing what had happened, a car with three occupants stopped to assist her. “Because the signal in Voëlklip is very bad, I couldn’t get hold of my husband and they went with me to the police station. I was shaking like a leaf.”
Smit described the perpetrator as a tall, dark-skinned man with a beard. She said what she found disconcerting was that even though the police seemed to recognise the perpetrator from her description no effort had been made to locate and apprehend him immediately.
She said she decided to share the details of her experience to serve as a warning to other motorists to be alert when driving near the Hermanus Taxi Rank, where the perpetrator is reportedly often seen.
“This man is a danger to the public,” Smit said. “I believe he needs help and needs to be taken off the streets.”
Captain Fadila September, spokesperson for the Hermanus police, confirmed a case of malicious damage to property had been registered.
“The complainant has been contacted by the investigating officer and asked to identify the alleged perpetrator in an ID parade,” she said.
No arrest had yet been made at the time of writing.