Resident salutes Alberton policemen

On the night of September 5, I needed to go to the hospital with my mum.

Leaving the hospital at around 23:40 and being two women alone in the car I felt unsafe.

Noticing there were no people anywhere to be seen and no cars made me even more afraid.

Coming to the main road in Alberton, I spotted one car driving very slowly. Not thinking and forgetting it was curfew due to Covid-19 and being afraid, I turned off my car lights and drove over the red light.

The next minute the car that was driving so slowly was right next to me with two policemen in a van. I got the fright of my life. Thinking jail time, here we come.

They asked me what I had just done. I told them my story of where I was and why I did what I did. They asked me where I stay and then after I answered them calmly they let me go.

I know there are a lot of stories doing the rounds of police faking uniforms and cars to rob people. So here I am thinking this might be the case, I started speeding towards my house as fast as I could.

Being afraid that I have no identity or proof of who these people are. The faster I went the more this van followed me. When I arrived at my house, I got out as fast as I could, opened my gate because my gate is derailed.

At that time the van had stopped behind me so I was not in a position to reverse. I took out the papers in my car from the hospital to show them I was not lying, but the officer driving calmly said, “no mam, that is not necessary, please go inside and be safe”. I was dumbstruck at that moment. I just said thank you very much.

The van waited in front of my house until I had locked my gate. They aimed to serve and protect. Which they did with respect and dignity.

I feel they need to know how grateful we were for their protection. The purpose of parking behind my car was to protect me.

Let’s not always see the bad in the police. There are still officers out there that are doing a good job.

God is so good, and I cannot thank Him enough for sending me two men who really cared and treated me with so much respect and did not once give me attitude or was rude.

They also have families. And I felt special in the way we were treated.

Let us give credit where credit is due and not always just report the bad that the police do.

Thank you to the two officers from the Alberton Police Station. I don’t know who they are but hope they read this message.

I salute you both.

Grateful resident