Stolen car found with R1.5m abalone inside

Daily Voice columnist Moeshfieka Botha’s stolen car has been found in Gansbaai with 1116kg of abalone inside.

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Cape Town - Daily Voice columnist Moeshfieka Botha’s stolen car has been found in Gansbaai.

But there was something fishy about the recovery of her 2005 VW Polo Classic, which had been hijacked with her son in it on August 1.

Police say the vehicle has been used to smuggle perlemoen, and they confiscated more than a ton of abalone inside the car.

Botha is very excited that her car has been found, and even though the car smells like rotten fish, she is just happy to have it back.

Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk say the Polo was found after abalone poachers saw a roadblock in Gansbaai last Tuesday and fled the car leaving a load of perlemoen still inside.

A delighted Botha said: “We managed to eventually get the smell out.”

Her ordeal started last month when her son was sitting in the car in their driveway in Ottery, waiting for her and her husband Nazeem Davids, when two armed men walked up and jumped into the vehicle.

The 16-year-old managed to get out as the hijackers drove off.

Botha said: “The thieves saw the roadblock and just got out and left the car behind.

“We are very happy to have our vehicle back. Criminals don’t care about the inconvenience their actions cause.”

Davids drove up to Gansbaai on Friday to bring their “baby” back home.

Botha said: “It smelled horrible from the perlemoen that had filled the boot.

“They were so cute, there were ‘I love you’ teddies on the dash and gospel CDs in the car.

“The mags and the black wrapping on the roof had been removed. The gospel music was insane... a converted criminal stole my car.”

She said her CA number plate had been removed, and was replaced with a Durban registration number. Police also found a set of Johannesburg licence plates in the car.

“There is a crack in the windscreen and our gearbox is damaged, but they did not even leave one perly behind. They could have left us with a few pieces,” she joked.

Unfortunately none of the items that were in the car when it was stolen were recovered, including three brand-new Totai three-plate gas stoves, a Behringer sound mixer, 250 drug testing kits, and a Canon 550 GS camera with lenses.

Captain Van Wyk says: “1116kg of abalone was confiscated. The suspects are still at large.”

Police say the estimated value of the abalone is over R1.5 million.

Daily Voice