Elderly Alkmaar couple robbed by four gunmen

An elderly couple were tied up, robbed and allegedly threatened with being shot by four armed men at their home near Alkmaar on April 1.

The husband (80) and wife (79) asked not to be named as the suspects are still at large.

The couple told Lowvelder that the husband had just arrived home from a trip at about 16:00 and had unlocked the door to his house when four suspects appeared.

His wife had been out for a walk on the property at the time, not knowing he was under attack.

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She said one of the suspects had hit her husband over the head with an object before dragging him into the house, blindfolding him and tying him up with wires. The suspects ransacked the house, stealing computers, tools and other valuables. They loaded the stolen items into one of the couple’s vehicles and fled.

She said as the suspects were driving away, they spotted her walking down the driveway and grabbed her.

“They brought me back to the house and tied my hands behind my back with duct tape. My husband was lying on the ground with wires around his arms.”

She said two of the suspects fled with the vehicle while the other two stayed behind to keep watch over them.

“They were swinging their weapons around and told us they would shoot us if we tried to get up off the floor. My husband told the suspects that the wires were cutting him.”

She said she had pleaded with the men not to be murderers and remove the wires from her husband’s arms. They eventually did and used duct tape to restrain him instead.

“I remember the two men had hats, and were wearing masks and gloves and winter clothes. Nothing was showing. All I could remember were these red, bloodshot eyes looking at me with the pistol they were swinging around.”

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She said when it started to become dark, the men left the house and there was no sound. The pair managed to close the door to their house. They found scissors and cut the duct tape from each other’s wrists.

The couple left through the front door at around 18:00. Their other vehicle was parked in front of the home, with the keys still in it. The couple drove to the gate. The injured husband had to pull it of the the rails as its remote had been stolen during the robbery.

Their phones had also been stolen so they could not call anyone for help either. They drove to a neighbour’s house who immediately called the police and AfriForum Nelspruit.

The wife said AfriForum Nelspruit’s safety chairperson, Devon McCullough, and an AfriForum Nelspruit response coordinator were the first on the scene. She added that they helped to get the police out to them.

The couple said they were extremely grateful to AfriForum. “They arrived as soon as they were called and stayed with us until 01:00 on Sunday.”

They thank them for the assistance and help.

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The wife urged people to remain vigilant since the attack had occurred during early afternoon.

“You can be robbed at any time, anywhere. People need to be careful of what is going on around them at all times,” she said.

ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring said ER24 was called out to assess the couple.

“The woman had escaped injury while the man had sustained a minor one to his head. He was treated, but later declined transportation to a nearby hospital,” he said.

ACS Spartan’s John Meintjies said the Lowveld Security Joint Operation Command was contacted by a Fidelity chopper on Sunday morning.

He said the chopper was busy with a cash-in-transit surveillance operation when it spotted an abandoned vehicle about one kilometre from the old Nelspruit Airfield.

It was identified as the car that had been stolen during the robbery, and was recovered.

The Nelspruit police had not responded to Lowvelder’s media queries at the time of publishing.