It was a good way to start the morning, drinking coffee, eating biscuits and chatting to Ferdi Gobey, executive manager of Capital Air, about hijacking in South Africa. FleetWatch’s Richard Macaskill was then introduced to Jean Brand, national recovery manager of Capital Air and not five minutes after, found himself donning a bulletproof vest and chasing down a stolen Toyota Hilux with the ground recovery crew. It was the start to a day of action.  After recovering the first vehicle – and then another two – without event, we got a call on the way back to the offices. It was the Control Room. Another Toyota Hilux had been stolen in the Benoni area. That made four in a matter of a few hours.  With the first three recoveries having gone off smoothly, I expected this to be a similar scenario. How wrong I was. Capital Air’s immediate response to the vehicle theft ensured that after a quick petrol stop, we were flying along the highway - Brand’s considerable driving talent shining through.  The chase continued at speed from Benoni to the south of Johannesburg along the N12 to the west with us always ‘almost’ about to catch the stolen vehicle. My pulse raced with excitement. “Two kilometres ahead,” the control room operator kept repeating, “two kilometres ahead!” With traffic to deal with, the vehicle was stretched to the limit but stayed within sniffing distance of the stolen Hilux.  All the while Brand was multitasking in the manner of a true professional: calling the police, making sure they were aware of what was going on and could back us up; calling the other response teams to make sure that further backup would be on hand; getting information from the control room about the speed, direction and location of the stolen vehicle; punching in the constantlychanging GPS co-ordinates as we went.  We exited the highway towards Eldorado Park. Now my pulse really started racing. I heard the multiple conversations Brand was having and picked up that we planned to intercept the vehicle near Soweto.  “Soweto or Eldorado Park? Where would it safer to take the criminal down?” I wondered to myself, starting to get quite worried over and above my excitement. Not that I had any choice in the matter. Phew! And this is just an average day in the life of a Capital Air recovery team member.  “This is the real thing,” I thought to myself, getting more worried but more excited. We spotted the stolen vehicle in Soweto and trailed it on the main road. The driver looked in his mirror and saw us. Realising that we were wearing bulletproof vests, he took a quick and sharp turn into Rockville. We made the same turn. Now he knew we were onto him. He undid his seatbelt while driving, taking more quick turns into corners at the last second, Brand staying right on his tail.  “Good for Capital Air, but what about me?” I asked myself once more, my heart beating faster than ever before, adrenalin coursing through my body. I wondered how Brand could stay so calm. As I’m wondering this, he cocks his gun. “Just in case,” he told me, followed by; “Oh, and stay in the car.” I had no problem obeying his order command on that one.

Caught ...  Brand prevents the hijacker from escaping as he attempts to get information out of him.  The game is over ... The criminal in question is headed for a jail cell for this hijacking.  ... another successful vehicle recovery  The stolen vehicle was left uncontrolled to crash into a resident's wall.