TWO women working at the Durban Child and Youth Care Centre (DCYCC) are still in shock after they were held up on the property last week.
According to Mandy Goble, director of DCYCC, the women were returning from the bank on Wednesday at 1pm, when they were followed into the property by the four armed men.
“One of the women said she had seen two of the men when they were inside the bank, and on the way back to the Centre, they saw the men in the car behind them, but didn’t think anything further about it. A social worker had just arrived at the Centre and the gate was open for the women to drive in. The men drove in behind them, parking across the gate,” said Goble.
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She said the women hadn’t noticed and had parked outside the building. However, the social worker spotted the men get out the car and pull on balaclavas.
“The social worker started to walk towards the men, but they pulled out guns and he turned back into the hall to call the police,” she said.
The men approached the two women as they parked their vehicle ripped the doors open.
“The one woman thought they were trying to hijack them, so she told them to take the car keys, but they asked her for the money from the bank. She gave them her handbag but they were obviously expecting there to be more money and patted down the women and rummaged through the car,” she said.
The men took the money, as well as the women’s jewellery, cellphones and handbags containing their IDs, drivers’ licences and bank cards.
Goble said the Umbilo SAPS responded quite quickly to take down statements from the two women.
“We showed them the video footage we had of the incident.”
“We can be thankful that Mondi funded the cameras after a break-in in February. We hope the bank will also have footage of the men. It is so disheartening that these soulless people were so professional that even when they saw the branded car, they knew they were stealing from a children’s home and not a commercial venture,” she said.
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Goble said they felt truly blessed that the women were not hurt.
“While this was a terrible incident, we are very grateful.”
“One of our elderly volunteers gave us R1000 for new locks and keys and people have shown true concern for the women and our staff. We are being tested by difficulties, but it’s what you do about them that is important,” she said. Goble said two weeks ago, a man who delivers bread to the Centre had also been held up.
Speaking about the incident, Nicolette Modicka, development and relationship manager at DCYCC said one of the problems was that there was no security guard on the property, as finances didn’t allow for this.
“If any security company is willing to assist us as a CSI initiative, this would be great. We feel a security guard would be a further deterrent,” she said.
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