JB Meyer (left) would like to see the state of his hijacker’s face. Photo: Marnette Meyer

Burly businessman JB Meyer gave an aspiring hijacker more than he bargained for on Friday. He is nursing a swollen lip, loose tooth, sore neck and arm, but he says he’d like to see how his attacker is looking.

Four men tried to hijack Meyer, who drives a Toyota 86 sports car, as he waited at a red robot on the corner of Owen Road in Uitsig, Cape Town, around 3.15 pm. He was on his way home early, tired from working for 12 days consecutively. It was a lovely afternoon and he had his window open. There were no people standing around, and there were cars in front of him and next to him. As he sat waiting for the robot to change to green he sipped an iced tea. Then, “A fist came through the window and connected with my head.” The impact was so hard that the tin of iced tea knocked loose one of Meyer’s upper teeth.

Appeared from his blind side
Four men had appeared from Meyer’s blind side. Two of them poked their heads inside the car and searched around the ignition area for the key. In this case they could not find it as the Toyota 86 uses keyless entry. “Vandag vat ek jou alles,” one of the men said. Nearby, the other two stood grinning. But Meyer was not the ideal victim.

Although he was tired adrenalin kicked in. “I hit the man twice in the face,” he says. “My lip is swollen and one of my upper teeth came loose when the can of iced tea connected with my teeth, and my arm is sore, but I’d like to see that guy.”

Four seconds
Meyer’s dashcam shows that the whole incident lasted only four seconds. It felt like ten seconds, he says. Finally, the robot changed colour and he was able to drive off leaving the men behind, swearing at him. As he drove away the realisation of what had happened kicked in and he got goosebumps. “One sits there sipping your iced tea and the next moment a fist connects with your head,” he says. “Not one of the other motorists did a thing to help. They did not even hoot. People always say, ‘Don’t fight back. Give them what they want.’ But I wouldn’t have done anything else but fight back even if they had a gun.”