Picture: iStock
South African gamer Sterna Lewis – also known as Miss Bandiit – from Centurion was robbed at gunpoint last week while streaming to her followers on Twitch.
Speaking to Pretoria Rekord, Lewis said she began a Call of Duty: Warzone stream shortly after 8pm on Friday, 18 June.
Robbers entered Lewis’ home around 11pm, first confronting her boyfriend, 37-year-old Mario Engelbrecht, before pulling her headphones off and ordering her to lie on the floor.
Lewis initially thought it was one of her two sons interrupting her. Engelbrecht, Lewis and her sons, aged nine and 12, were tied up, after which the robbers ransacked their Amberfield home.
The robbery was caught on camera and streamed to Twitch. The clip shows three intruders. One was unmasked and can be identified.
Thankfully, a friend of Engelbrecht’s lives in the same estate and became concerned when the couple dropped out of the game without saying goodbye.
The first few minutes of the robbery can be seen in the video below. A longer version can be viewed here.
Other gamers could hear the couple saying: “Please don’t hurt us, our children or our dogs.” Lewis said if the sound is turned up high, the robbers can also be heard saying: “Relax, we won’t harm them.”
“One of them brought our children. My eldest son, who is 12, was quite shocked when he saw us lying on the ground because he thought they had killed us. He shouted at them, ‘what have you done?’ We then told our children we were fine and they must lie down on the ground with us.”
Friends tried contacting Lewis without avail and drove to the couple’s home to investigate. Upon arrival they heard the robbers in the garage and called estate security and police.
Another gamer who watched the incident unfold on Twitch also called a private security company.
The robbers fled the scene leaving behind most of the valuables they planned to steal, but managed to take three smartphones, smartwatches, two Xbox consoles, three PCs, nine monitors and laptops.
Lewis said she’ll be taking a break from streaming, but assured her followers she’ll be back online in due course.
Now read: TikTok expert offers tips to make sure your kids are safe online
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