Dave Rothwell (69) endured a three-hour ordeal when four masked men, including one wearing a Spider-Man mask, held him at gunpoint on his Malalane farm on Friday, October 2.

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Rothwell and his wife have lived there for the past 20 years and have never encountered such an incident on their farm before. “My wife coincidentally went away that evening to visit a friend, which she hardly ever does. I was watching TV and at about 19:15 the men stormed into the living room through the stoep door,” he said.

Rothwell explained that they had lived a laid-back lifestyle where they would usually leave the stoep door and security gate open at night and only close the curtains when it got dark.

“I was terrified when I saw the men wearing balaclavas and one who appeared to be the leader in a Spider-Man mask,” he said. The leader and one of the other men were armed and demanded cash and guns. “I took them to the main bedroom where our safe was and gave them R1 000.”

Robbers steal wine and World War II medals

This, however, was not sufficient for the robbers. They went to every room in the house and stole jewellery, cellphones, tablets, wine, computers and even World War II medals that Rothwell had inherited from his grandfather. “I started to collect bottles of wine over the years and they managed to take 25 bottles.”

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Two men then reportedly carried the stolen goods up the road to a vehicle Rothwell suspected was waiting for them.

The two armed men then also instructed Rothwell to open his banking apps to see how much money he had. “The leader then quickly realised that my phone used fingerprint recognition which he tried to activate. Once he did that, all the banking apps froze, which worked in my favour.” The robbers, however, persisted and asked for the Pins of his bank cards.

“I gave them the right Pins, knowing they wouldn’t be able to access the account since they were already frozen.”

Robbers celebrate with beer

The robbers, however, still wanted to stay and celebrate by helping themselves to bottles of beer from the fridge.

“They shook the beer as if it was champagne and celebrated their victory,” Rothwell said in disbelief. All of this was happening while he was instructed to sit in the living room.

After three hours, the robbers reportedly told Rothwell to stay put and took all the keys and threw them outside.

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“They told me that if I dared to escape they would kill me,” he said.

The robbers never took Rothwell’s car after he told them the vehicle contained a tracker.

“They were very aggressive and pointed the gun at me the entire time. They wanted to tie me up with masking tape at one stage but never did,” he added.

Victim escapes to police station

After 15 minutes, Rothwell managed to escape unharmed. He was able to force the doors open, retrieve the keys, and drive to the police station.

“I opened a case and the SAPS immediately escorted me back to my house where they examined the scene.”

Police advised him to sleep at another place so forensics could continue with their examination of the house the following day.

With investigations ongoing, Rothwell expressed disappointment with the SAPS after officers asked him to redo his statement.

He added that police are trying to follow up on a lead, but have still not made a breakthrough in any arrest.

“The community knows who these criminals are. They drive around in nice cars and wear expensive clothes. I want to warn people to be on the lookout for them,” Rothwell said.

He advised residents to store their cellphone serial numbers to assist police and to install facial or fingerprint recognition on their phones.

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Despite the incident, Rothwell added that he has put the ordeal behind him and focuses on safeguarding his property.

Police comment on the ongoing investigation was not immediately available.