Johan Van Hecke (58) was attacked on Wednesday evening around half past ten while walking towards Zuidstation with his bicycle. The robbers made off with his smartphone, wallet and gray men’s bicycle. “Whoever can return it in one piece will receive 500 euros.”
“I regularly cycle from Ghent to Brussels,” Van Hecke tells BRUZZ on Saturday. “I did that again on Wednesday. After that trip I drove through the city a bit and had a drink on the Anspachlaan. Then I left for Zuidstation to catch the last train.”
South foor
At the end of the Anspachlaan, near Lemonnier, Van Hecke encountered the Zuidfoor. “I got off because it was very busy there and I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way. I was also well in time for the last train, so I continued on foot with my bike in hand.”
After Van Hecke had passed the fair, he continued towards Zuidstation. “Normally I always cycle past it, but it was so busy in the parking lot (Europalaan at the Zuidertoren, ed.) that it seemed safer to me to walk to the left, through the colonnade. There I was suddenly stopped by someone who asked if I had a fire.”
While Van Hecke tells the man that he does not smoke and therefore cannot help him, he is grabbed from behind by a second figure. That person pressed a tile against the victim’s neck, while the man who asked for the fire robbed him of his wallet, smartphone and bicycle. “I tried to push that tile away with my free hand, but I am a 59-year-old heart patient and have very little strength left. The robbers were in their early twenties, so I had nowhere to go.”
After the incident, Van Hecke walked to a group of girls standing nearby. “They called the police, the ambulance and cardstop. Fortunately, because it later turned out that they had tried to withdraw money three times.”
Emergency Department
The Gentenaar was eventually taken by ambulance to the hospital. His hand had to be sewn in two places, although that was not his main concern. “I was in the emergency department, had no cell phone or wallet and the last train had already left. I also didn’t know any cell phone numbers by heart, so no one could call to come and get me.”
And so he spent the night in the ER. “The police had already been on the scene before, but since the officers only spoke French, they left again and later returned to the hospital with a Dutch-speaking agent. I asked if they could give me a paper stating that I had been robbed and therefore had no smartphone or wallet to buy a train ticket, but they could not help me with that. So the next day I had no choice but to board the train to Ghent without a ticket.”
500 euro
The fact that he has lost his wallet and mobile phone is no drama for Van Hecke. “But that bike was my prosthesis,” he says. “I don’t drive a car and always travel by bicycle. On average I drive about five to six thousand kilometers a year.”
The bicycle in question is a large, gray aluminum men’s bicycle from the KOGA brand. The bicycle has a black front fork, a butterfly handlebar, thirty gears and two fine lines on the tube between the handlebar and the pedals: one blue and one brown. Anyone who can return the bicycle in one piece to Van Hecke will receive 500 euros. “I know that the chances are small that I will find him, but if someone does succeed, mine will indeed receive 500 euros. If I have to buy a new bike, I’ll spend a lot more money.”
The robbery is not an isolated incident. In recent months, incidents in and around South Station have piled up. Last week, police spokeswoman Sarah Frederickx said that extra patrols have been present in the area since the beginning of the summer. Since the beginning of this year, some 300 security actions have also been carried out in the Zuidwijk.
This article is originally published on bruzz.be
