The rudest kind of wake-up call
As he opened the door to greet the knocking stranger, he saw a sudden flash, felt the impact of metal against his skin and consequently fell to the ground
Two horrific incidents of house robbery were reported to Witbank SAPS last week.
On March 14, *Mr Francois van Vuuren heard a knock at his front door.
As he opened the door to greet the knocking stranger, he saw a sudden flash, felt the impact of metal against his skin and consequently fell to the ground.
At this point, five strange men entered Mr van Vuuren’s home where they hogtied and blindfolded him.
The group of men then demanded to be given Mr van Vuuren’s pick-up truck’s keys.
Entirely incapacitated, Mr van Vuuren had no option but to comply.
Upon receiving the keys, the strange men loaded Mr van Vuuren into his own car – still hogtied and blindfolded – and drove off with him.
The men dropped Mr van Vuuren off in Witbank Central Business District (CBD), where he managed to untie himself and seek help.
Upon returning home, Mr van Vuuren found that the robbers had returned to his house after dropping him off in Witbank CBD, and emptied it of all furnishings and appliances.
The police have not made any arrests pertaining to this robbery, and urge anyone who might personally know one of the five robbers to come forward.
“What scares me most is how well planned it was,” Mr van Vuuren explained, “they must have spent some time discussing how they would do it. They worked together like a team and always knew what came next. I thought they had kidnapped me to stop me from calling the police; who would have guessed that they kidnapped me to buy themselves more time to carry away everything in my house? It’s a pity they don’t put their intelligence to better use.”
On March 16, Mr Thabang Mthimunye* suddenly sat up in his bed at approximately 02:00 – in front of him stood two strange men.
The two men turned on the bedroom light; waking up Mr Mthimunye’s wife who subsequently let out an ear-piercing scream.
The two men then pointed their revolvers at Mrs Mthimunye and blindfolded Mr Mthimunye.
The robbers then took two cellphones from the household, and sped off in Mrs Mthimunye’s brand new car.
Mrs Mthimunye’s car was recovered in Johannesburg; however the police are still searching for the two robbers who were involved in the incident.
“It was terrifying,” said Mr Mthimunye, “I was sure they were going to rape my wife and kill me. We are very thankful that they only took earthly possessions and didn’t hurt either of us. We can replace a car; you can’t replace each other.”
*Names of victims changed upon request in order to protect the identity of the victims.
