Few people can fight a group of armed criminals, get attacked with an axe and live to tell the tale. Ashley Gibbon considers himself lucky after he survived an ordeal that no resident should ever have to experience in their own home.
On August 24, Gibbon went outside to check the electricity pole because the lights had dimmed at his Muldersdrift residence. “On my return two guys were waiting on the inside of my driveway,” he recounted. “At first I thought it was my gardener playing a joke. I tried to defend myself but another three guys approached me from behind and hit me on my head with an axe.”
Gibbon gave details about the horror they went through that night. The intruders dragged him into the veld opposite his house. “I was screaming and William, my gardener heard me. He came to see what was wrong but by then they already had me down on the ground and ordered me to be quiet.”
The thugs waited for William to get close enough and he too was captured. Four of the attackers escorted William back inside the house and one stayed with Gibbon, who was bleeding from his wound.
“They came out again with William and one laptop. They then escorted me and William back inside and as that happened, William ran. He saved the day. They panicked, I presume.” He said once they were back in the house, he and his house mate were tied up and the robbers asked him to open the safe. They hurriedly took another laptop, three cell phones and a pistol and ran off.
Gibbon said the robbers were heavily armed. “One guy had a crowbar, the other one had an axe, and the other two were armed with 9mm firearms.
“It messed me up. It’s not a nice feeling. Every time I go to sleep at night now …” he trailed off.
After the robbers had ran off, Gibbon and William went to a nearby farm where they called for assistance. He said he opened a case with Muldersdrift Police. “They are busy investigating it. We did identification kits and took fingerprints. I remember three of them but the other two I am not too sure.”
Physically, Gibbon is fine besides the bandaged cut on his head. However, he said the moment the sun begins to set, he is on edge. “I lock up everywhere. But I am on edge and I am not comfortable; I don’t even put my radio up loud anymore in case I hear something. I am angry at the same time because this is your home, your haven,” he shared, adding that something like this had never happened to him before.
This incident happened when Gibbons was already dealing with the sorrow following his mother’s death from Covid-19. “The one guy said I must have had God on my side because he was going to shoot me. I looked at him in disbelief. He even said it to my gardener.”
He said had William not run off, the robbers would have taken everything he had, including his car.
