My neighbour saved me

A landowner has the general property right to exclude others from her land.

Some say the right to exclude others is what makes something private property.

An invasion of the right to exclude is called a trespass.

A trespass is an intentional, wrongful entry onto another person’s land, without the owner’s permission and without a legal privilege to do so.

On September 24, Ms Trinkie Nieuwenhoudt awoke to the sound of her little Yorkie, Kolwyntjie, barking.

Nieuwenhoudt stays in a complex in Reyno Ridge, and considered herself to be relatively safe.

“The walls are high, we have electric wire across the walls and all of the houses are built close by, so I never dreamed that anybody would try to get into my yard,” Nieuwenhoudt recounted.

At approximately 02:00 in the morning, Nieuwenhoudt decided that she couldn’t stand her Yorkie’s barking any longer and got up to investigate.

“I saw a strange man lurking around in my garden. I watched him for a while until I saw him start jerking on my shed’s door. At that point I knew he was here to steal, so I pressed the panic button,” Nieuwenhoudt said, “the alarm started blaring. I locked my bedroom door and watched from my window as the intruder tried to gain access to my shed more frantically. Then suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw another figure jump across the boundary wall between my neighbours and I. At first I was sure that it was another assailant coming to help the thief, but then the figure started chasing the man rattling my shed’s door around the garden.”

Nieuwenhoudt says that she was confused at first, but soon realised that the new figure was a helper – not a foe.

“I watched them run around and around for a few minutes before the thief scrambled over the complex’s wall, shocking himself on the electric fence halfway over, but ultimately getting away. The next thing I knew, I heard someone call ‘tannie, tannie!’ at my bedroom window. I looked down and saw my neighbour Pieter van Wyk. He was jumping up and down, screaming ‘hy’s weg tannie, hy’s weg!’ and smiling from ear to ear,” said Nieuwenhoudt. “Pieter jumped in the minute he heard my alarm. He came over my wall not knowing what to expect, and when he found an intruder, he acted bravely. I guess I just live to Superman. I’m really very lucky, who knows what would have happened if Pieter hadn’t shown up and chased the guy out of my garden.”

A case of trespassing was opened at Witbank SAPS, the thief got away without managing to steal anything and Niewenhoudt made Van Wyk some traditional Afrikaans rusks to say thank you.