Dad’s brave fight against assailants
A severely traumatised family is trying to come to grips with events on Monday, January 9 when four unidentified assailants gained access to their Piesang Valley home, between 01:00 and 02:00.
According to Captain Bernadine Steyn, provincial SAPS media liaison, the balaclava-clad intruders allegedly entered the house through an unlocked sliding door in the spare bedroom. Three of the men were armed with golf clubs and one with a fire arm.
The 56-year-old husband, who had sustained serious injuries in the attack, said that during that he woke up during the night due to the barking of the family’s dog, who sleeps next to his and his wife’s bed.
“As I got up I saw four guys in balaclavas in the passage, three of whom rushed toward me and pushed me back down onto the bed.” One of the attackers leapt over the bed and pushed his wife out of bed, before pinning her down on the floor.
“It all happened very quickly and my wife says she just remembers hearing me swear and fighting viciously,” recalled the man.
As chaos broke out in the main bedroom, the family’s 11-year-old daughter woke up, and one of the assailants went to her and grabbed hold of her.
“He brought my terrified daughter into our bedroom and held her standing up in the corner. At this stage I had managed to get to the passage, but my wife and daughter say that the one who held her [the daughter] had a gun on him.”
The husband explained that he had managed to push an alarm button, but when the siren failed to sound, he realised that it was not functioning.
“I somehow made it to the kitchen where I grabbed an axe. They had broken two golf clubs on my head and my back looked like a raw meat puzzle. I knew I was badly injured and had to draw their attention out of the house if possible and get help!”
The husband somehow escaped to the clubhouse, which is right next door to their home. At the clubhouse he set off the alarm, and the siren blared instantly.
In the meantime, his 46-year-old wife overheard the one intruder say to the others: “Where is the mlungu [white person]?”
The attackers then dragged the wife and daughter outside and demanded money.
“My wife said she had money in her briefcase and she tried to open it, but they were getting impatient and just grabbed it and her purse and fled.
I was circling the house with the axe looking for them when I saw our car spin off down the road with my wife and daughter inside, and was immensely relieved that they had managed, against all odds, to get away. The attackers were nowhere to be seen and I must have been a sight – blood everywhere, yielding an axe and ready to do some serious self-defense!”
His wife and daughter drove to the police station.
Chubb Security as well as the police arrived swiftly.
“By the time I got back from the hospital where I had to get ten stitches in my head, the police’s Forensic Unit, which I believe had come all the way from George, was almost done dusting our place for fingerprints. All of these guys were very professional and excellent,” said the husband.
“We have been here for four years and it’s such a lovely area, that we became complacent. My worst thought is that my 11-year-old daughter had to witness such violence and see attackers beating up on her father …”
The family is receiving trauma counseling, and security at the home had been beefed up.
“The members of the club have been incredibly supportive and it’s with their help that my family and I are getting through this,” concluded the husband.
Dogs were use to follow the spoor of the assailants who had fled on foot, but they were not caught in time.
Said Steyn, “Nobody has been arrested yet and the investigation continues.”
Source: Knysna-Plett Herald