We need to talk about this South African badass Leo Prinsloo

South Africa has produced many excellent soldiers, at least 20 of which have received the Victoria Cross (the Commonwealth equivalent of our Medal of Honor). It’s therefore no surprise that an armored car driver would be cool, calm, and collected during a attack by heavily armed gangsters.

One other thing South Africa has is an elite tactical team called the Special Task Force (STF) as part of the country’s national police force, the South African Police Service (SAPS). Part SWAT, part hostage rescue team, and all hard core the STF is the cream of the crop. Of the 150,000 or so cops in the SAPS there are only about 90 who make the grade to be part of the STF. One former STF man is the aforementioned armored car driver, Leo Prinsloo.

What you’re about to see is some top tier calm under fire. On 22 April, Leo is driving an armored pickup truck in a cash-in-transit operation. As South Africa continues its descent from a first world into a third world country, robberies by gangs with automatic weapons have become commonplace.

Leo is apparently not only a veteran of the STF but serves as an instructor at his security company. In interviews subsequent to this event, he said he’s pre-visualized what his response would be in this situation. That’s a good tactic. Riding shotgun (or AR in this case I suppose) is Lloyd Mtombeni.

It’s hard to tell from this vantage point what all happened. Recently, more video has come out, from the forward-facing camera.

There’s an additional few seconds that can be seen here;

The last bit was clipped in the previous video. pic.twitter.com/b6btQ8HgcM

— eNCA_BarryBateman (@eNCA_BBateman) May 5, 2021

I can’t find a full play-by-play, but it looks like the white Ranger (with at least three armed assailants inside) passes the CIT vehicle. Leo is on high alert and seems to smell something is coming. When that dark colored sedan opens fire, you can see it just over Leo’s shoulder, he rams it.

Driving through the ambush, Leo hits the gas. His partner’s gone for his pistol, but Leo directs him to put it down and grab the rifle. By now, the lead vehicle of the ambush, the white Ranger, has stopped and dismounted its men. Leo doesn’t miss a beat and just plows right into them. Unfortunately he didn’t seem to hit any.

With two cars of armed robbers behind him, as they again try to box him in, Leo keeps it cool. He repeatedly rams both the Ranger and the Audi sedan as they come past him.

I’d like to see complete forward-camera video of the rest of the incident, because it’s not entirely clear what happens. At one point as they’re driving into or near one of the robber’s vehicles Leo calmly and chillingly tells Lloyd “They’re going to shoot. They’re going to fucking shoot.” At which point the two men take more fire.

From the news snippets I’ve seen it seems like Leo is able to disable at least one of the attacker’s vehicles. It’s clear from the inside video that he makes a U-turn and then soon after jumps out of the truck with the rifle. The SAPS shed a little light on what Leo was doing. Balls of fucking steel on this fella;

SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Vish Naidoo told TimesLive that the incident took place on the N4 in Pretoria and said the suspects abandoned the heist after the brave display by the CIT staff.

“The driver of the CIT vehicle managed to evade the robbers for a while but later stopped in wait for the robbers. The robbers fled without taking any money,” said Naidoo.

Naidoo added that no arrests have been made thus far.

So after being shot at by literal car loads of heavily armed thugs, not only does Leo drive him and his partner out of the ambush, but he sets up a one-man counter-ambush of his own! Absolutely unbelievable.

Unfortunately, organize crime being what it is, Prinsloo is facing death threats. His security company is taking it seriously and it sounds like they’re helping him out.

Category: Crime, Police, Real Soldiers