Watch: Centurion couple robbed while streaming live on an international gaming site
“When they covered my husband's face, I thought they were going to shoot him.”
A Centurion couple, who were robbed while streaming live on an international gaming website, said they were traumatised by the incident.
What was supposed to be a fun gaming evening for the mother of two boys Sterna Lewis and stepdad Mario Engelbrecht at their home in Amberfield Valley Estate in Centurion, turned into a traumatic ordeal.
Lewis said she and Engelbrecht were game streaming when three men, one of them armed, barged into their study.
“One of them grabbed my headset [while I was busy game streaming] and I turned around only to face a man with a firearm. They told us to get down on the floor and remain calm.”
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Lewis said they begged for their children’s lives, who were in the other rooms.
“One of the them brought our children. My eldest son, who is 12, was quite shocked when he saw us lying on the ground because he thought they had killed us. He shouted at them, ‘what have you done?’ We then told our children we were fine and that they must lie down on the ground with us.”
Lewis said the robbers tied her and her children’s hands with shoelaces. Engelbrecht’s face was covered, and his hands and feet tied with an electrical cord.
“One of them was standing at the door [keeping guard over us] while talking to the other men who were busy stealing stuff and ransacking our home.”
Lewis said the intruders took both of their car keys, cellphones.
They also packed two plasma TVs as well as laptops and other electronics into her car.
“While they were busy packing the stuff into the car, our family friend Jaco Viljoen, who lives in the same estate and was playing the live game with Mario, drove by the house after our sudden silence.”
Viljoen, a fellow gamer, said he had a gut feeling that something was wrong as he drove to the couple’s house.
Viljoen asked the estate’s security officers to accompany him to check on the house. As they got close to the garage, he said he heard unfamiliar voices and he told the security officers to call the police.
Lewis said the robbers must have heard the security officers and ran away, leaving the car with everything they have packed into it, right there.
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“When we heard it was quiet, my husband managed to get free himself. He saw one of the security guards through the window and called for help.”
Lewis said the incident has left them and their 12- and 9-year-old boys traumatised.
“It was a terrible ordeal. You never know whether they are going to shoot you or not. When they covered my husband’s face, I thought they were going to shoot him.”
Engelbrecht said they recovered his phone and car keys in a veldt on Saturday, not far from the estate.
Wierdabrug police station spokesperson Sergeant Divine Nkuna confirmed they were investigating.
She said four suspects were reported to have fled the scene with two watches, two phones and car keys.
Amberfield Valley Estate security director Stephen Kgomo said the estate was conducting an investigation into the matter, while working with the police.
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