We need to talk about this South African badass Leo Prinsloo

| May 7, 2021

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.

Leo Prinsloo and Lloyd Mtombeni (Photo credit: SATrucker.co.za)

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;

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

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5JC

Saw that the other day. Leo can crew my MRAP any time. Lloyd not so much.

Slow Joe

Rayciss!!!111

just lurkin

According to what was said on Twitter they were transporting gold.

Also, this is pretty funny: https://twitter.com/haxanvillain/status/1388234179251429382

Fyrfighter

Hmm, so they threw out the “colonists” that built the country into what it was, and turned it back over to the tribes that were there originally, and people are actually surprised that said tribes had reverted to the same tribal warfare they engaged in before they were forced to act civilized???
Excuse me if I can’t help but think that anyone who is surprised by this is a complete freaking idiot…

rgr1480

About the same line was said in “The Wild Geese.”

https://youtu.be/18mg9-TFMnQ

Cool movie trivia: Ian Yule, who played Sergeant Tosh Donaldson, was actually in the Forces. Royal Artillery, Para Regiment, …… SAS! Then he went on to the Rhodesian Security Services, South African Defence Force, and finally, he was a member of Mike Hoare’s 5 Commando ANC.

rgr1480

Oh, and the reason his SAS beret looks authentic is because it is! It was the one he wore in the SAS

26Limabeans

Looks like the guy that dove for the guard rail got
left behind by his buddies.

KoB

“Just doing my job folks, all in a day’s work.”

Getting to where one needs someone like this just to make a trip to the grocery store…In our Country.

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

We picked up a contract for taking gold shipments to the proccesing plant but before that we had to take a class on transporting hazardous materials on board our trucks. We had to have the truck placarded with a corrosive sign because the material we were transporting had a corrosive product inside the containers. Material was taken to our place for delivery the next day so the crew gets inside the truck and jumps out feeling sick. The corrosive product leaked out of one of the containers and started to eat through the truck floor. Which I’m suprised no one smelled it inside the building. A couple of the guys got sick from it and the company had a hard time trying to get the name of the product which is supposed to be in the bill of lading.I do remember that their was a yellow stain on the floor. We had shotguns inside the trucks for those that hadn’t gotten their hand gun permits yet but we had pictures of the US Trucking guards holding Thompson Sub guns from back in the 1920’s. Brink’s was merging with US Trucking when I got hired back in 1970. 3 thompson sub guns were found in the gun range under the truck ramp before I was hired and turned over to the ATF at 90 Church Street, Manhatten. Nice job by the security people down under.

mattinnc

Leo is a badass.

Interview with a former member of the STF on the Team House: https://youtu.be/q6v-Sw9t69c

National Geo Explorer documentary: https://youtu.be/5jFliDeQx7w