A knife-wielding mugger picked the wrong victim when he tried to snatch a schoolgirl’s cellphone in Goodwood.
The 17-year-old girl was walking home on Monday March 1, at about 2.50pm, when the mugger accosted her on the corner of Milton Road and Oxford Street, say police.
The man tried to snatch the girl’s cellphone, but she fought back and grabbed it from him. The mugger then stabbed her in the right hand.
“But not even a wounded hand could stop the girl from retrieving her cellphone,” said Goodwood police spokesman Captain Wayne Theunis.
The girl escaped serious injury.
Meanwhile, members of Goodwood Armed Patrols had seen the incident and apprehended a 28-year-old suspect, who was taken in custody by Constable Mzamo Maso.
Earlier, on Sunday night February 28, a mugger posed as a good Samaritan to rob a man who was having car trouble.
Police say the mugger offered to push the vehicle, which was broken down in Goodwood’s Vootrekker Road, to the side of the road.
“The owner then gave him a R20 for his good deed,” Captain Theunis said.
But the mugger showed his mean streak when he grabbed the man’s Samsung cellphone and ran off, jumping into a blue VW Polo.
“At that moment, an eyewitness of the incident alerted Warrant Officer Jacques Pieters, who was standing in Voortrekker Road. Pieters pulled over the Polo and found the suspect, who got a lift, with the cellphone in his possession.”
Both suspects appeared in the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court on a charge of possession of stolen property on Tuesday March 2 and a charge of robbery on Wednesday March 3.
Captain Theunis said muggings were a problem in the area.
“We urge the public to be vigilant and aware of their surroundings and the people that approach them. We also encourage learners not to advertise their cellphones or be seen walking with earphones as this makes themselves vulnerable.”
