Man fears for life as robbers argue about killing him
Hannes Frauendorf said he is lucky to be alive after a house robbery that nearly cost him his life.
Frauendorf returned to his home in Judd Street in Horison at about 4.30pm after taking a walk to the shops. He realised he had forgotten to buy cigarettes and walked back to the supermarket on Mouton Street. On his return he put his cigarettes in his bedroom and then walked to the kitchen where he was faced with two armed robbers. They ordered Frauendorf into the TV room where they tied his hands with shoelaces and questioned him about firearms and other valuables on the property.
While one suspect kept watch over him, the other one started searching the house and eventually discovered the safe. “If you do not open the safe, I will kill you,” he told Frauendorf who decided not to be brave but rather to open the safe for the criminals. The two robbers took five firearms and looted the rest of the house while at the same time packing the items, which included cameras, a cellphone and jewellery into bags. They made Frauendorf sit on his knees and tied his feet up as well. All the time his two beloved little dogs sat by him, with the suspects seemingly ignoring them.
Frauendorf, whose mouth was covered with packaging tape, was overcome by fear when one of the men returned with a meat knife. He could hear the two intruders arguing just out of sight about whether they should kill him, but one of the suspects told his accomplice not to do it because “he was a good man who cooperated”.
The criminals then loaded all the goods in Frauendorf’s BMW and left. The ordeal lasted more than an hour and it took Frauendorf another half an hour to untie himself before he could alert his neighbour, who in turn called the police.
“If both of them had the attitude of the knife-wielding robber, they would have killed me,” said Frauendorf.
Frauendorf’s daughter Mellisa Swanepoel told the Record, “He is unemployed and living in my grandfather’s house while my grandfather’s estate is being finalised. So sad that the criminals are doing this to people who can’t afford to lose anything.”
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