Northwold resident Ferdie Pieterse fought off four men armed with pangas, a crowbar and a steel pipe with his bare fists during a traumatic and bloody home invasion on September 20.
But this was not the first time the 60-year-old has been assaulted in his own home, as he and his wife Gabrielle were tied up and robbed by who they believe to be the very same four intruders, in December.
“My father built this house 40 years ago and living next to the greenbelt and Golden Harvest Park he said, he must have been targeted by thieves 30 to 40 times,” Pieterse said.
“Our neighbours were hit eight times in two years. It is a real problem that the police and security companies know about but do not seem to be able to stop.”
Pieterse sports a broken wrist, a deep wound to his head where a panga struck him and needed six staples at the hospital, as well as multiple cuts, scrapes and bruises from where the weapons fell.
“When I saw the guys coming from the garden I immediately tried to slam the door closed but they got there first. I put my hands up and tried to assess the situation. But the guy in front immediately hit me on the head with a panga and shouted at me to get down.
“They did not have a gun like last time, and my instincts told me they were confined in a narrow area with little space to swing their weapons, so I should fight back.”
Pieterse laid into the intruders with his fists at close range, and while they were fearful of striking their own, blows still landed on him.
“I began shouting and swearing at them and fighting as best I could. At one point they got me onto the ground but I managed to push them off. I ran for the bedroom and they grabbed my shirt, holding on. The couch had rotated and prevented them from surrounding me or cutting me off.”
While in this hold, Pieterse manoeuvered and saw his shirt rip free, enabling him to lock the living room door behind him, run to the bedroom and press the panic button. “The alarm had already been triggered from the beams in the garden, but I wanted to press it anyway. I also went to the kitchen and pressed the panic button there three or four times.”
The men had disappeared by then but had taken a laptop, cellphone and charger, and left a bloody smear where they had jumped over the back wall – presumably from a wound one intruder had accidentally inflicted on another.
“It is awful to feel powerless in your own home. Even now the dog was barking at geese the other day and it had my nerves going.”
Pieterse commended SB Security for its rapid response.
Owner of the security company Shawn Nicholls said there are often incidents like this in the neighbourhood.
“Guys come in through Golden Harvest Park all the time and they use it to escape,” Nicholls said.
“If you live on the border, the best thing you can do is have good perimeter security, including electric fences that work during load-shedding. We forget these are professional criminals, this is their full-time jobs. They use apps to see which areas are without power and strategise where to hit.”
Layers of security from the perimeter wall to the house, to inside the house are important too, he said. “The earliest an alarm can trigger and alert a security company, the better.”
Questions were sent to police spokesperson Captain Jeff Phora on September 26, and he said he would reply shortly. His comments will be published when they are made.
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