Family survives armed robbery

The owner of the house, Ben Malemule, told the Herald that he arrived home from work just after 8pm.

“Everything was in order and I disarmed all the alarms and went to the living room to watch TV,” he said.

After about an hour, Malemule’s son, Sean, arrived home with a female friend.

Malemule explained that he heard a girl scream, but at that point didn’t realise that his son had a friend with him and, thus, thought that the scream came from somewhere else.

“My son’s bedroom is on the outside, near the garage, so I had no idea that he and his friend were being confronted by robbers,” he said.

“I did, however, turn down the TV’s volume and tried to listen; it was then that I saw a figure appear next to me.

“At first I thought it was my son, but then I heard a voice say: ‘Don’t look up’.

“Immediately I knew something was wrong.”

The robbers then ordered Malemule to lie down, tied his legs and hands with electrical cables and covered him with a blanket. Sean and his companion were already tied up in another room.

“Afterwards, I heard that the intruders had also pointed a firearm at my son and instructed him to look down,” he said.

The robbers then asked Malemule if he owned any firearms.

“At first I lied, because I kept my firearm in a safe, but I realised that it would be best for me to comply with everything they asked,” he said.

After a while the robbers brought Sean and his friend to the living room.

Soon after that Malemule’s biggest fears were realised, when his daughter, Cindy, arrived home.

“When they also tied her up and brought her to us, they said: ‘We’re not going to rape you’,” he said.

They then untied Malemule’s legs, so that he could show them where the safe was.

“I felt completely hopeless, with my hands still being tied,” he said.

After he showed the robbers where the safe was and gave them the code, they tied his legs again, but with shoelaces.

While the robbers were busy loading items into Sean’s car, an Audi A4, the alarm went off.

“Immediately they became verbally aggressive, because they thought it was one of us, but I told them we couldn’t even move and that one of them had all the remotes with him.”

The robbers then jumped into the Audi and sped off in the vehicle, with the stolen items, which consisted of TV sets and cellphones.

“All of us then rolled to the kitchen and Sean’s friend could loosen the cables from her hands. She then used a knife to cut us all loose,” Malemule recalled.

“Luckily my son has a tracker in the car.

“The car was found the following day, near Vosloorus. The keys were still in the ignition, but all the stolen items had been removed.”

A case of house robbery was opened at the Brakpan SAPS and the case is currently being investigated.

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