POLOKWANE – A security guard at a local business in Chroom Street found himself not only fending off robbers but also dogs when he tried to keep robbers from entering the premises last Saturday. According to the guard, Lourens Nel, he was on his regular patrol around the premises at about 21:00 when the attack happened.
“I was walking around one of the buildings when I saw a dog running in my direction. There was no time to run and the dog bit into my leg and started to shake it while growling aggressively. All I could do was to cover my face and neck before the dog could kill me,” Nel said.
He said that a second dog also ran towards him and he managed to grab a piece of pipe to fend off the two dogs.
“I was forced to hit the first dog with the pipe before it fled along with the other dog. After the ordeal I found that someone had broken a window on the side of the building and that my cellular phone had been stolen.”
Nel said that by the time he made his way to the back fence he saw a man disappearing into the bushes with the two dogs.
Polokwane Police Spokesperson, WO Lesiba Ramoshaba, said that there had been reports of dogs being used in robberies in recent months. “Police are investigating the possibility but there have not been any arrests made as yet that could confirm these cases,” Ramoshaba said.
The owner of the property, Janine Brown, said she had been told by the guard and other security guards that they had either been attacked or heard of people being attacked by dogs during a robbery. The manager of a local security company, Daniel Mashogo, said that several of his guards were attacked by dogs in industrial areas during the last two months. “Attacks have been prominent at businesses where the property is close to open fields like Chroom Street and there have been several robberies where the security guards were distracted by dogs while robbers broke into the buildings. We believe these dogs are being trained to attack people while their master breaks into the buildings,” Mashogo said.
According to Solly Bulala, a local dog trainer, it is possible to teach a dog to attack people while the dog trainer is doing something else. “Dogs can be trained to attack on demand and only stop the attack once they have been told to do so,” Bulala said.
