Man stabbed during robbery at east security estate

A 21-year-old Pretoria east resident was hospitalised after being stabbed in the chest during a robbery at the estate where he was staying with his partner.

Security concerns have since been raised at the estate following the stabbing.

Kyle Taylor (21) and his partner Aarin Strydom 22, were sleeping in Strydom’s apartment in Lombardy Meander when three armed men broke in, in the early hours of 16 November.

It was unknown how the men entered the estate unnoticed, but the men carried out a TV, laptop as well as cash worth R4 000.

Recounting the robbery, Strydom said the men entered the apartment while they were sleeping and stole the items without being heard.

“They stole the items and took them either to another unit or took them over an electric fence that was broken in one of the spots,” she said.

Shortly after that the robbers returned and entered the bedroom where the couple had been sleeping.

“I woke up to Kyle screaming as the three armed men who tried entering my bedroom,” she said.

“He jumped over the bed and fought them off in an attempt to lock us in the bedroom, to keep me safe. They punctured Kyle’s lung.”

During the scuffle, Kyle was stabbed in the chest after which the robbers took off.

Strydom said they were later told two men were seen running out of her garden and across the field.

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After hearing the commotion, neighbours came running to help the couple.

“On the way to Wilgers hospital Kyle’s lung started to collapse,” Strydom said.

Strydom said during the invasion she attempted to call estate security three times, but there was no answer.

“Eventually when the estate’s security guards arrived at my apartment the couple who came to assist us instructed them to contact the police.

“They did not even know the estate’s address, let alone how to spell Lombardy Meander,” she said.

“The one neighbour then took over and got the police to the apartment.

“Before this incident, three weeks ago, a girl living alone, two blocks from me on the second floor, got robbed of her television after being held at knifepoint.”

Some weeks after the stabbing, residents at the estate held a demonstration calling for management to tighten security at the estate.

Strydom said the incident was one of many that had taken place at the estate and most of them targeted women who lived alone.

“What scares me is that in my situation, they came back. They knew coming back that it would be no trouble getting in. They knew or at least thought I was alone.

“Three of them came back, armed, even after they already had the stolen goods. Having based the majority of my assessments in psychology on rape, home invasions, crime in South Africa, my mind is continuously filled with what I know would have happened to me.”

Strydom said she was appalled by the poor security at the estate and has since decided to move out.

She said she also wanted the estate’s management to reimburse her for her stolen property.

“I also want management to pay the excess medical aid fees for Kyle’s hospital bills. Additionally, Kyle and I now have to receive trauma counselling as well as go onto prescribed anxiety medication,” she said.

She said even though Kyle has been recovering well from the stabbing, doctors told him that his lungs could collapse at any time in the foreseeable future.

Police spokesperson sergeant Yeroboam Mbatsane said police were looking for three suspects believed to be involved in the robbery.

“We would like to encourage the members of the public to be vigilant during this festive holiday. Have your neighbour’s contact details and always inform each other about your whereabouts.”

Lombardy Meander estate management was yet to respond to Rekord’s enquiry at the time of print.

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