{"id":8756,"date":"2026-01-07T07:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T07:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/8756\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T07:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T07:04:12","slug":"cape-robber-tells-hiker-to-quit-smoking-after-stealing-cash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/8756\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape robber tells hiker to quit smoking after stealing cash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hiking in Cape Town<\/a> or South Africa in general is not for the weak, especially if you\u2019re doing it alone.<\/p>\n

The views are elite, yes. The sunset is majestic, yes. But sometimes the mountain decides to humble you with a full-blown life lesson, delivered by a robber who clearly didn\u2019t read the criminal handbook.<\/p>\n

Solo traveller @davidschmitz98 shared his experience on Instagram<\/a> after heading up Signal Hill alone to catch the sunset. Normal plan. Bad timing.<\/p>\n

According to Schmitz, he was this close to the end of the trail when things went left.<\/p>\n

\u201cI swear it was two minutes before I arrived at the end of the hiking trail, I was alone, there was a guy standing in my way. He grabbed my shirt and said, \u2018Where are you from? Where are you going?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Already too many questions for someone you didn\u2019t invite. Then came the classic: \u201cWhere is your phone?\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, to be fair, Schmitz thought he was prepared. He had two bags, his phone hidden under his clothes, and a bit of cash in a backpack – which he offered up instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018I only got this with me\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The robber took the money, then asked for the backpack too. Because greed doesn\u2019t clock out early.<\/p>\n

Schmitz pushed back. \u201cI told him, no man, I need my backpack. There is nothing in there, I can show you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He showed him the bag\u00a0 which included \u201csomething\u201d to smoke. And this is where the story officially stops making sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe saw it and then told me, \u2018Hey, don\u2019t smoke<\/a> man\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excuse me? A robber giving wellness advice? Sir, please focus on the crime.<\/p>\n

The backpack survived. The money didn\u2019t. But even that wasn\u2019t straightforward. While holding the cash, the robber asked, very politely, \u201cCan I take it?\u201d<\/p>\n

At this point, Schmitz was just as confused as we are.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, brother, what answer do you expect me to say?\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came the cherry on top. The robber claimed he was part of a gang, went full “sterk gesig” (Afrikaans for putting on a tough, intimidating front) and proceeded to give Schmitz tips on gang signs and what to say in \u201cgang language\u201d.<\/p>\n

So yes. He got robbed. But he also got a free tutorial.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the experience, Schmitz said: \u201cI guess the story about Cape Town is true. But I still love it here, but I will definitely not go on a solo hike in this country anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hiking in Cape Town or South Africa in general is not for the weak, especially if you\u2019re doing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[2065,6098,6109,6110,6097,6100,6107,6108,1710,6096,6099,6106,131,6101,4468,266,6104,6105,6102,6103],"class_list":{"0":"post-8756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-cape-town","9":"tag-cape-town-hiking","10":"tag-comedy","11":"tag-crime-activities","12":"tag-davidschmitz98","13":"tag-hey","14":"tag-hiker","15":"tag-hikers","16":"tag-instagram","17":"tag-schmitz","18":"tag-signal-hill","19":"tag-solo-activities","20":"tag-south-africa","21":"tag-table-mountain","22":"tag-tourism","23":"tag-travel","24":"tag-travel-entertainment","25":"tag-traveller","26":"tag-viral","27":"tag-viral-moments"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}