AN EMPANGENI family was traumatised after being held at gun point during a residential robbery in the early hours of Saturday morning (last week) in Louis Botha avenue.
Their horror encounter came just three days before Police Minister, Fikile Mbalula, revealed that robbery with aggravated circumstances had increased by 6.4% with 140 956 accounted for in the country in the 2016/2017 financial year.
That amounts to at least 386 robberies with aggravated circumstances per day in South Africa.
Speaking to the ZO, the homeowner, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he wanted to warn people to be vigilant over the looming festive season.
‘I was asleep and suddenly I was accosted at around 3:30am by three men wearing balaclavas.
‘One had a gun and pointed it to my head, instructing me to get up, while the other two, one armed with a crowbar and another with a screwdriver, stood around the bed.
‘They asked me where the money was and at that moment my wife got up and screamed.
‘My adult daughter came running from the other room and the men bundled her into our room and hit her on her head with the butt of the gun,’ said the homeowner.
The perpetrators took an undisclosed amount of valuables including cash, cellphones, laptops and jewelry before enquiring as to where the safe was.
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‘They asked us for the key to the safe and we told them we didn’t know where it was; we were so flustered and traumatised that we couldn’t think.
‘I eventually told them to take the safe out of the wall.
‘While they were doing this my cellphone alarm went off, they asked me what that was and I told them it was my security alarm.
‘They began to panic and quickly removed the safe out of the wall.’
The perpetrators took the homeowner’s gate remote and asked him to show them which button opened the front gate.
After showing them they left through the back door and fled the scene of the crime.
‘I am just thankful that they didn’t harm us and I just want people in Empangeni to be aware of this because we are coming up to the festive season and this is likely to occur more often,’ said the homeowner.
According to reports, the perpetrators gained access to the home by jumping over the gate before using the crowbar to break the burglar bars on the lounge windows and enter the home.
Police confirmed that a case of house robbery with aggravated circumstances had been opened and that they are investigating the matter.
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