The bottle store owner who escaped with his life on Wednesday when his wife attacked one of three armed robbers by hitting him with a bottle over the head, is out of hospital – with two bullet wounds and 18 stitches on his head as a result of the ordeal.
John Halder was shot twice, once in his right ankle and once behind his left knee when three men, two armed with firearms and one with a ten inch knife, robbed the bottle store he and his wife own in Silverton.
His wife Pat, who on Thursday hardly had a voice left after screaming so loudly for help during the robbery, had probably saved her husband’s life when she attacked one of the armed men, who was pointing a gun at close range right between her eyes, by hitting him over the head with the first thing she could get hold off – a bottle.
Her husband also fought off the robbers, but in the ensuing scuffle was shot twice and was also hit on his head by one of the robbers.
“We are very proud of each other for standing together in the face of danger,” Pat, of John and Pat’s Place Bottle Store in Silverton, said.
It was initially believed that John had only been shot in the ankle, but after paramedics treated him on the scene before taking him to hospital for surgery, it was discovered that he had been shot twice. He was also badly beaten on his head by the robbers.
John discharged himself from the Mamelodi Hospital on Christmas after his head wounds were stitched up and his bullet wounds treated.
According to Pat, the robbers fled the scene with R2 000.
Asked why she had chosen to attack a man pointing a gun in her face, Pat said she was fighting for her husband’s life.
“I used the first thing I could get my hands on,” she added, talking about grabbing the empty bottle to use against the armed robber.
According to Pat, the robbers struck just before 10h00 Wednesday morning. One of them pretended to purchase a six-pack of beer and said he also wanted to buy R5 Cell C airtime.
“He said it out quite loudly and I now realise it was a signal for the two other robbers waiting outside to also enter the bottle store. When he came up to the counter to pay, he took out a firearm and told me to stop with what I was doing,” she said. When he pointed a gun in her face, she reacted by hitting him with the bottle. Her husband also started fighting off the robbers.
One of the firearms used in the robbery was in fact a toy gun, Pat later discovered. It was dropped on the floor with the knife when the robbers fled the scene.
The robbery is being investigated by the Silverton police, but on Friday no arrests had yet been made.
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Read: Brave wife fights off armed robbers with bottle
