BRUISES and marks are still visible on Peter and Hettie Burger who were tortured and robbed at their house in Stapleton Road.
The Burgers believed it is God’s grace that they are still alive. “I have never been so traumatised in my life and although that morning is still a blur, I remember trying to breathe as they were suffocating me,” said Hettie.
Peter (71) and Hettie (65) have been residing in their house for 11 years and this was the first time they had experienced such a horrific ordeal.
Peter said they were preparing to leave the house, as they make a living by selling sandwiches, when two men carrying knives approached him.
“They threw me into the sitting room and tied my hands with a cable and went to my wife who was in the kitchen,” said Hettie.
Hettie said at first she thought it was her son playing a trick on her when someone grabbed her from behind.
“I only realised that we were being robbed when one of them took me to the sitting room and I saw my husband tied up.
“They took a cat blanket and shoved it in my mouth, I almost choked, they kept pushing me down and did not allow me to breathe and I was really battling because I have sinus,” said Hettie.
The men fled with a laptop three cell phones, rings and watches.
“But what still surprises me is that they kept asking for my gun which I do not have.
“They said we have seen you in the garden with a gun, but the only thing I take with me to the garden is a piece of wood that I take out weeds with,” said Peter.
The Burgers said they are very grateful to all the people who assisted them throughout this ordeal especially to the Pinetown Neighbourhood Watch who came as soon as they heard the outcry and called paramedics to assist Hettie who had a problem breathing.
Pinetown SAPS communications officer, Lt Bongumusa Manqele, said the matter was still under investigation and no arrests have been made.
