South African robbers have shunned traditional gaffer tape and deployed a new weapon to subdue their victims: superglue.

An unnamed man was grabbed in the street and driven to his home, where a gang stripped him and superglued him to the seat of an exercise bike. They also glued his feet to the pedals and hands to the handlebars. Finally, his lips were sealed with the adhesive.

The South African Press Association reports that the four robbers were heavily tooled up with handguns and an assualt rifle, and wore suits when they abducted the man in his fifties. They took cash and valuables, and drank their immobilised victim's best whisky as they ransacked his house.

Paramedics used a combination of Vaseline and solvents to free the man.

Kidnap-robberies, where the victim is taken from the street and forced to direct the crims to their home, are not rare in South Africa, which suffers one of the highest crime rates in the developed world. On the flipside, at almost 14 Rand to the Pound, superglue is pretty cheap. ®

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