Cape Town man relieved that Samaritans ‘stole’ his car

In a moment of panic, a Capetonian man feared that his car had been stolen – but unbeknown to him, two Good Samaritans had taken the trouble to ensure that it was kept safe.

Craig Barrowman, owner of a tour company in the city, was out with friends on a Friday night and parked his car in the vicinity of a pub.

Hours later, he realised his car keys were missing.

Later, it emerged that he'd accidentally left the keys in the car door. Fear turned to panic when he discovered the car was no longer where he had parked it.

"When I got to the parking, of course my first thought was that someone had sped off with my car. It wasn't far from a police station, so my friends and I walked there to report my car stolen."

At the police station, officers peppered Barrowman with questions, including: "Where are your car keys?"

He tried to explain what happened when a police officer finally revealed: "I have your car keys and your car is parked across the road."

It turned out that Lehlohonolo Sesedinyane (30) and his friend, Peaceful Ndlangamandla (27), who watched soccer in a pub that evening, spotted the keys in the car door.

They first approached several people, but the people were suspicious of them and refused to help.

"If I left the car like that, someone may have broken in and the man would have lost a lot," said Lehlohonolo, from Bloemfontein.

"I'm the kind of person who [doesn't] only think of myself," he added.

The two friends thought if they took the car to the police station they'd be treated as theft suspects. However, after waiting for hours for Barrowman at his car, it became their last resort.

"I decided I'd cope with the questioning. After all, I hadn't stolen the car. What's more, I didn't drive around in the car. We went straight to the police station," Sesedinyane told YOU.

He said the police first threatened to lock them up because they drove the car without permission.

But Sesedinyane showed the police his ID and explained that nothing had been stolen from the car. 

"We were even prepared to wait for the owner," he said.

Barrowman was blown away by the men's kindness.

"Hearing what happened, it took me and my friends a good while to process it!"

He's very grateful to the men who, he said, restored his faith in humanity.

Ndlangamandla said they didn't expect any reward and acted out of the goodness of their hearts.