Furry family member saves owners during attempted hijacking
The dog bravely helped the pair fight off their two attackers and chased them onto the railway tracks, where they escaped.
An Australian sheepdog was hailed a hero after he saved his humans from an attempted hijacking in the parking lot opposite Shangri-La flats in Doonside on Saturday night, 20 July.
Justine de Gersigny, 43, was brutally attacked, along with Roelof van Antwerp, 37, but Roelef’s dog Aussie, bravely helped the pair fight off their two attackers and chased them onto the railway tracks, where they escaped.
The pair had stopped their vehicle opposite the flats to let Aussie out while waiting to fetch Justine’s daughter when two men appeared out of the bushes at about 8pm. “One of the men smashed the driver’s window with a rock,” recalled Justine. Roelef jumped out and went around the rear of the vehicle, drawing the second attacker away from her. He pulled out a knife, but Roelef managed to fend him off.
The first attacker started hitting Justine in the face with the rock. She was bleeding profusely from her wounds and was choking on her own blood, but she fought back bravely.
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“Aussie was lying over me, protecting me in the car and taking most of the hits. I scooted back over the parking brake, trying to get out the passenger side and I could feel the glass cutting into my back. He grabbed my ankles and wrist, trying to pull me out through the window. When I started to kick him in the face to get free, he starting hitting me with a pole.
Justine managed to get out the passenger door and ran while screaming for help. Aussie then bolted to assist her dad until the thugs decided they were not going to win and they took off, with Aussie hot on their tails. “It was so quick and so scary,” said Justine, still bruised and sporting a gash above her eye where she had to have stitches, and cuts on her back and legs from the glass.
“I am really grateful for everyone who helped us that night, including the person who drove up to us in a white bakkie and put his headlights on to help and the paramedic Bevan van Vuuren for treating me.”
The pair said after the incident people asked them why they stopped there if it was so unsafe, but they said, although they live in the flats, they were unaware of the number of violent incidents that have occurred there recently. “Why aren’t people reporting crime in the area?” they asked. “When we went to the police they didn’t want to open a case, but only did so when we insisted. If we had any idea of the number of incidents we were told about from the security companies, we never would have stopped there,” said Justine.
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