At about 7pm, the robbers entered the house through an open, sea-facing sliding door and pounced on a 24-year-old man lying on the couch watching television. His mother was reading in another room and his father was in the bathroom.
“When my wife came out of our computer room and saw the gunmen, she slammed the door, but they kicked it, forcing it open,” said the home owner, who did not wish to be named.
Although he heard noises, he assumed his son had some of his friends around. However, his son accompanied by the gunmen alerted his father that they were coming into the bathroom. “They pulled me out of the bath at gunpoint.”
The robbers demanded he open a safe, which was empty. “They threatened to rape my wife and shoot my son.” They demanded access to a second safe, which the family does not own.
“When they asked for my firearm, I handed it to them.”
The commotion alerted the neighbours. “My neighbour's wife was in her kitchen, which faces the computer room and had heard a door being slammed. They called both my landline and cellphone and when we did not pick up, he decided to investigate.”
Armed, he came towards the sliding door and saw the gunmen, who also noticed him. Shots were exchanged between the neighbour and gunmen and the house is riddled with bullet holes from the volley of shots fired.
The robbers fled with jewellery and a gun, but in their haste to escape, dropped one of their firearms. They fled through the sliding door, down an embankment and over a perimeter fence. At Baggies Beach they hijacked a car, which was later recovered in Umlazi.
