TEENAGERS were the victims of criminals in two separate incidents within three days.
What was supposed to be a well-spent Valentine’s Day after an 18th birthday party at a house in Birchleigh, turned into a nightmare for two young men, who requested not to be identified.
The two were walking home to Monument Road after midnight when a large group of men emerged from nowhere and attacked them. They were walking along Pretoria Road towards town just past the Elgin Road traffic circle.
“We had just turned into Pretoria Road when we heard a whistle from behind us. I got my cell phone out to call my father and brother, who were walking towards us to meet us halfway.
Soon after a group they describe as about 10-15 men appeared from the other side of the road.
“I took a half-full bottle of whiskey from my back pack to try use it as a weapon. I managed to hit two of the guys with it, which distracted them a bit and gave me time to make a run for it.”
One of the men who had come across the road took a brick and threw it at the young man, who lifted his arm as a shield, but unfortunately injured himself in the process.
Meanwhile, his friend was also trying to fight off three of the attackers. Lucky for them, only about six guys tried to hurt them.
“I attempted to fight the guys who were coming for me with my bare hands, as I had no weapon I could use,” he said.
The two teens managed to make a run for it, with one of the attackers chasing them. One of the group members yelled at their peers to come back and stop chasing after them.
The attackers didn’t steal anything valuable, just a back pack containing the bottle they used as a weapon.
By the time the two got to the next set of traffic lights, the one’s father and brother had arrived.
“My father and brother called the police and SSS Security. They bandaged my friend’s hand,” the young man said.
This was not the first incident the boys experienced. They were attacked last month on the bridge across Pretoria Road from the station.
“Three guys approached us, tied us up and left us in the nearby veld. They took our phones and tried to take our bank cards too, but left them when I told them there was no money in the bank account,” one of the boys said.
In a separate incident, an eight-year-old boy had his and his friend’s bicycles stolen by two teenage boys at McDonald’s in Norkem Park.
The boy and his seven-year-old friend had gone to the Spar on Kwartel Street to buy bread. As they were leaving, two teenage boys approached them, telling them the way home was full of thugs who were going to steal their bikes and kill them.
“They told us to follow them so they could show us a safer way home,” the little boy said.
They ended up at the dam at McDonald’s. The boys took their bikes and rode across the street into an open space between new townhouses and houses,” he recalled.
The two boys waited a while for them to come come but they did not.
The boy’s father, David, said he was worried about the incident and the safety of children.
“What I ask myself is what do the parents of these boys say when their kids come home with bikes they didn’t buy for them? Do they see it as okay and not reprimand them? Do they not become worried that their sons have stolen?”
The bikes are both BMX makes and the one is orange and the other light blue in colour.
