“THEY dragged my wife 35m by her hair to the main bedroom and stole R47 000 worth of jewellery and then threatened to take my grandson for ransom.”
These are the angry and traumatised words of a Rhodesfield father and grandfather, whose family and church friends were held captive by six armed men on August 5 in their home.
“We had people from the church over, as well as my son and his wife with their two kids of eight months and four years old, I was waiting for my wife to get back from work. When she arrived, I opened the safety gate for her to come in and when she was inside, six men forced their way through the door and yelled ‘get down’, they were armed and one of them had a brick in his hand,” said the man.
All the people inside the house were tied up and stripped of their jewellery, wallets, cellphones and car keys.
The robbers also took three TV’s, about five laptops, a desktop computer and even emptied out the freezer and pantry.
“At one point they asked me if I had a safe, I said no, one of the other men told him I was lying and that is when they dragged my wife to the bedroom and threatened to take my grandson, he said we will find him in Tembisa. I thank our Father that the alarm went off at that particular moment when they wanted to take my grandson, I don’t know how it activated but the men got a fright and took off. There was not one drawer not thrown out on the floor or bed. They cleaned us out!”
The robbers fled in a Renault belonging to the man’s son, into which they loaded all of the stolen items.
They left everyone still tied up inside the house.
Kempton Park SAPS was on the scene after they were alerted of the armed robbery.
“I can remember their faces as if they were standing in front of me, do you think I will forget their faces?” said the man.
Capt Jethro Mtshali, spokesman for Kempton Park SAPS, confirmed that a case of house robbery had been opened at the station.
