Beeping bakkie rattles robbers
Grant had parked his branded Hi-Tech Nissan bakkie at the back of the house so the suspects would not have seen it upon their arrival.
SCHAGEN – The recent spate of farm attacks plaguing the country saw another incident occur in the Lowveld this week. Luckily, nobody was seriously injured.
In a twist of fate, a CSG Hi-Tech Security Lowveld technician became the victim of an armed robbery while he was repairing a house’s alarm. The robbers stole his company vehicle to make their getaway with the goods. When they encountered a remote-controlled gate 200 metres away, they fled with only a stolen firearm.
CSG Hi-Tech Security Lowveld response manager Callum MacPherson said technicians are normally not exposed
to crime-fighting like their fellow security officers. Malcom Grant was in the house with the domestic worker on Thursday morning at around 10:00.
Police spokesman Capt Dawie Pretorius said the domestic worker was outside hanging up washing when four armed suspects approached her and forced her inside.
Grant had parked his branded Hi-Tech Nissan bakkie at the back of the house so the suspects would not have seen it upon their arrival.
“Grant only saw two men enter the house. One was armed with a handgun and the other a rifle. They kicked him and hit him with the butt of the rifle,” MacPherson said.
The two tied his ankles together with box tape and his wrists with cable ties. “They put a material bag over his head and took his wallet and keys off him.”
Grant could hear them shouting at the domestic worker in another room to open the safe. “She could not open the safe so they broke it open and found a .22 rifle inside.”
Pretorius said the men ransacked the rest of the home, taking two plasma televisions, food, liquor and clothing which they put into the back of Grant’s bakkie.
Hi-Tech’s vehicle was fitted with security systems that the robbers could not bypass, which emitted a beeping sound. The men went back inside and hit Grant on the head again, asking what the sound was. He told them it was a faulty part and they left. Pretorius said the four armed men, who were all wearing blue overalls, stopped at a gate about 200 metres from the house.
“The gate can only be opened by remote control so the suspects fled leaving all the goods on the back of the bakkie and only took the .22 rifle with them,” he said.
Once he heard the men had left Grant managed to free himself and set off the same alarm he had been working on. “Our control room alerted us so we immediately responded,” MacPherson said.
Police were called and a helicopter and the police’s K9 unit and Bossies Community Justice embarked on a search for the suspects. Grant and the domestic worker were treated for their bruises and cuts on the scene by Hi-Tech’s emergency medical team.
Pretorius confirmed that a case of armed robbery had been opened. No arrests had been made at the time of going to press.
TLU SA said, according to their statistics, there were 23 farm attacks accross the country in August so far. Six people had died.
Lowvelder reported earlier this week that, in the early hours of Sunday morning, three people were attacked in a home on a farm just outside Barberton. One victim, James Munro, was severly assaulted.
Two weeks ago, a couple on a farm near White River managed to scare off their attackers with their own firearm. At the time of going to press, no arrests had been made.
