A quick-thinking Johannesburg man left an unsuspecting phone snatcher empty-handed after he chased him down and recovered his colleague's phone.
The incident happened at the Caltex petrol station in Sebenza, Edenvale, on Friday and was captured on CCTV camera.
Jared Hand, a mechanic, told News24 that he and his colleagues were sitting outside T&W Auto Services taking a break when a white vehicle dropped off an unknown man.
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"The car pulled up, and a guy in a blue shirt jumped out and went to the shop next door to us," Hand said.
"He went into the store for like two seconds because he noticed it had cameras. He then walked up and down the premises, scoping around to see what was going on, and then got back into the car."
Colleague
That's when his accomplice, a man in a white shirt, got out of the car. Video footage shows him approaching Hand's colleague, who was sitting about a metre away. He grabs her phone before making a break towards the getaway vehicle. But not before Hand catches up to him.
"The guy walked towards us and probably assumed that the female sitting with us... would [be] easy to dupe," he explained.
"People always come up to ask about our services, so initially, I didn't think anything of it and didn't notice him standing there."
His colleague screamed when the man snatched her phone. And that's when his instincts kicked in.
"I didn't know he took the phone; I thought he had assaulted her. So I just jumped up and started chasing him," Hand said.
He caught up to the perpetrator and retrieved the phone before the assailants sped off.
No one was injured in the incident, and the phone was returned to the owner in perfect condition.