Brazen burglars’ shocking antics
Her breath caught and her heart started racing. The man stood completely still as he watched her intently.
Late last Friday night, Mariske Marè woke to find an intruder standing in the kitchen. Her breath caught and her heart started racing. The man stood completely still as he watched her intently.
The next few seconds were a blur. The intruder grabbed a handbag off the kitchen table and bolted for the door. Struggling to make sense of what had just happened, Mariske gathered her thoughts and went to find her parents.
Just past midnight last Friday, at a birthday party for a 13-year-old boy, families gathered at a home in Sunny Ridge to enjoy a night of fun together with friends and family.
“There were about eight boys. They were having a LAN party, where they all sat and played computer games on a network,” said Susan Pitout, one of the adults who also attended the party. “At about midnight, we had just finished having supper and the adults were sitting on the porch having coffee. The boys were running around and making quite a big racket, when Mariske came outside and told us what had just happened.”
The home was full of people; three adult couples along with eight teenage boys and one teenage girl, Mariske.
“My daughter was not even going to come with us, but she decided that she did not want to stay home alone,” said Elmarie Marè.
Earlier that evening, Mariske had accidentally hit her head on a shelf, and had decided to lie down on the couch in the living room. The burglar had snuck in quietly through a glass sliding door, as the adults chatted and the boys revelled in the swimming pool.
“They must have been keeping an eye on us the whole night. We had all put our handbags and cell phones on the kitchen table earlier that night, and we were all just relaxing and chatting after dinner,” said Ms Pitout. “The boys were making such a noise in the pool, that we would not even have heard anything inside the house.”
When asked what had gone through her mind when she saw the intruder in the kitchen, Mariske said that she immediately thought that had to be the domestic worker. “That was the first thing that I thought of. Then I realised how late it was, and I had a horrible feeling in my stomach,” she said.
According to Mariske, the man was very well dressed. After she had informed her parents, they all went chasing around the house to look for the man, and saw another man around a corner.
“There must have been at least three. When my husband went to the back wall, they threw the handbag back over the wall,” said Ms Pitout.
The police were summoned and they searched the area, although apparently no police dog was available to help in the search.
The burglar took about R1 500 from the handbag before throwing it back over the wall, and one of the boy’s cell phone was also taken.
Most concerning for Ms Pitout was that when they dialled the 10111 police number, they could not get through to an operator.
“This is very scary to me. In school our children are taught to use the 10111 number in an emergency. That night, it failed us. What if our lives were in serious danger?” asked Ms Pitout.
Residents are urged to have a list of emergency contact numbers, with alternative contact numbers for emergency services . Newcastle police can be contacted on 034 314 6135/7 or 034 314 6158/9.
