This is our story:
Shortly before 5:00am on the morning of 20th Dec we packed our belongings and prepared to leave for our vacation to the sea. My mom and dad, my husband, Bertie, and my two children, Christopher(12) and Rebecca(9) and I were all so excited. We had saved all year for our holiday and had spent all year paying off our holiday home. We were going on holiday to Shelly Beach on the South Coast of Kwazulu Natal. I am told that this beautiful strip of coastline is known as the Hibiscus Coast and draws many tourists every year.
Shortly after 2:00am we arrived at our holiday home. It was a really spectacular place set in a beautiful garden and approximately 500m from the beach. The property had a high wall, electronic gate, security gates and burglar proofing. We felt safe and were in awe of the beauty we were surrounded by.
After a short swim on St. Michael’s beach, we returned to our holiday home to have dinner and have an early night as we were all tired from the long trip.
Shortly after 9:00pm we all turned in for the night. Fortunately, I had decided to put mattresses for my children in our room to sleep on. The four of us had chosen the main bedroom on one end of the house and my parents had chosen a guest room on the opposite end of the house. I had taken my small miniature Daubermann dog, Felix, along and he lay sleeping between my husband and me. At around midnight I awoke and heard what I thought was a scratching sound. I woke Bertie and he went to take a look and to check that all the doors were locked properly. He found nothing out of place and returned to bed. We knew the neighbours had big dogs and we assumed that the noise had come from them. Bertie got up another three times after this as we just couldn’t ignore the noises. He checked the doors and windows and again found nothing wrong. On one occasion when Bertie went to check, the dogs next door were barking terribly and Bertie let our little dog out to have a run about as well. It must have been close to 1:00am when we finally dozed off again.
Shortly after 1:00am I woke up as I heard muffled voices. I opened my eyes and realized that my worst fear and most dreaded nightmare had just become a reality. Standing at the foot of our double bed were three men with balaclavas over their faces. Two of them were armed with revolvers and the third man had a very large knife. I cannot describe the fear that surged through me; I felt my throat close and my tongue felt like a piece of lead. Standing beside my beautiful children and my beloved husband stood three potential killers. As I lifted my head, they showed me to be silent; I was too shocked and afraid to utter a word anyway. I sat up, shaking profusely and thinking surely this isn’t happening, I must be dreaming. Pointing to my husband, Bertie, one of the men with a gun walked round to his side and held a gun to his head. The other man told me, “Wake him, wake the big one!” I managed to whisper Berties’ name twice and he opened his eyes staring directly into the barrel of a gun. Bertie let out a cry of shock and fear and again the men insisted that we remain silent or they would kill us. The leader of the gang ordered the other two men out of the room in Zulu. I recognized the language as I bought a CD from which I was trying to learn Zulu and so some of the words were familiar to me. The leader kept his gun on us and the other two men disappeared down the long passage. I knew they had been sent to my parent’s room and we felt so helpless as we couldn’t warn them of what was coming.
I saw Christopher stirring and the man stepped forward and held the revolver to my son’s chest. I begged him not to harm my children and told Christopher that there were men with guns in our house. The man told me to shut up. Chris sat up slowly with his hands above his head. At this moment we heard shouts of terror and cries for help from my mom and dad. Apparently, my dad had awoken as the two men entered their room. One of the men charged down on my dad and stabbed at him. In shock, my dad shouted, roared and kicked to get the man off him. Then as he looked beside him, the other man had shaken my mom awake and had the gun against her head. My mom pleaded and begged that they wouldn’t hurt them and continually requested that they put their guns away and that they would do whatever was asked of them. Bertie began begging and pleading that they would not harm my parents. Bertie offered them anything they wanted in exchange for my parent’s lives. Very agitated, the man kicked the bedroom door closed so we couldn’t hear my parents cries and ordered Bertie, “Shut up! Shut up!” and he waved the gun in his face. Then through the door my mom’s cries rang clear, a sound I have no words to describe to anyone. I went ice cold and froze in fear. Chris showed the man that he wasn’t armed, leaned forward and pointed at my MP3 player on the dressing table: “ Please sir,” he said, “take this MP3 player, it is worth a lot of money and please don’t hurt my granny and grandpa…..they are old.” The man reached down and took the MP3 player. He shouted something in his language to the other two men. The man that was guarding us was obviously shouting orders to the other two to bring my parents to us. As my parents were taken from the room, my mom began to pray loudly and my dad joined in. This angered the robbers and they shouted that my mom must stop doing that. One of the men promised my mom that he would not shoot her if she remained quiet. This gave my mom the courage to ask him to put his weapon in his pocket. All through this ordeal, my mom reminded this man of his promise and asked him to put his gun away. This brought little bits of relief as he listened to her occasionally. My parents were marched into our room and made to sit on the bed with us. I thought that this was it; they were going to kill us all here. They walked back and forth across Rebecca who was still lying sleeping. One of the men was highly agitated and moved the point of his gun from one person to the other. He seemed itchy to use it and was delighting in our fear. He was about to tip Rebecca’s mattress when Bertie asked the leader of this band of criminals if we could just wake our daughter and call her to us on the bed. If we were going to die, we would then all be together. The leader agreed and holding the gun to Bertie’s head allowed him to call Rebecca to us. Rebecca got up quietly and calmly and joined us on the bed. We were all made to sit with our heads down as the robbers had moved their balaclavas up onto their heads and their faces were now visible. I was sure this was the end as I knew that they would definitely not leave witnesses behind. My dad, Bertie and Chris were now sitting in front of my mom, Rebecca and me. Rebecca was shaking so badly that the whole bed shook, but she remained silent and didn’t utter a word. Then began the robber’s grueling search for valuables. “Where is your cellphones? Where is your money? Where are your clothes? Where are your shoes? Where is your handbag? Where are your guns?” The questions rained down on us, as well as threats to kill us if we didn’t give them what they’d come for. They scratched through everything, filling our suitcases with their loot. They made sure that one armed man stayed with us at all times. During one of their searches, they opened the wardrobe in our room and found a long, tall gun safe. Bertie and my dad explained over and over that this did not belong to us and that we were just visitors on holiday. They continued to ask for the key, pointing their guns at my dad and Bertie. They attempted to force the safe open, shaking and kicking it. One man wore gloves, but the other used Bertie’s socks as gloves. They went through a door into the garage just behind our room, took power tools, came back and then locked the door tossing the key away. Bertie and my dad and mom continued to ask that they do not harm us and that we wouldn’t do anything. At first they wanted to lock us in the garage, but they had themselves tossed the key away. Then, they wanted to lock us all in the room, but couldn’t get the key to work. In walked the leader to my dad and arrogantly requested, “Please sir, may I borrow your car.’’ My dad explained how his central locking worked and handed over the bunch of keys. This man also asked my father how the electronic gate worked and my dad explained it all to him. They pulled the door closed behind them and we heard a muffled discussion going on. I heard them cock a pistol and thought that one of them would be sent back to finish us off. We heard footsteps go down the passageway and we all sat in silence with our heads bowed. We waited to hear if my dad’s car would be started up. We sat for a long time, too afraid to look up or make a move in case they had not yet left. After a long time, Bertie carefully got up, tiptoed to the window to see if my dad’s car had left. But, it was still there, so we sat quietly again and decided in whispers that we would wait like that till daylight. After what seemed like an eternity, I could take it no more and asked my dad to turn off the ceiling fan with the long switch that was dangling above his head, so that we could hear better. My dad put the fan off and as we listened there was deadly silence. We waited a little while longer, then decided that we would all go together to check if they were gone. In a pathetic, shaking group, we all went in silence to the front part of the house. Relief washed over us as we realized that we had been left alive and that they had left. We decided to go and look for help. The house was built on a slope and we had to trudge uphill, my mom barely able to walk from what we had been through. We were all in our pajamas without shoes as the men had taken everything. Bertie and my dad didn’t even have shirts. The first few houses we couldn’t attract anyone’s attention as their security was so good, but, finally we found help at a house on the corner of the street. The people were friendly, hurried us inside and phoned the police. Within minutes the local police arrived and my dad and Bertie went down to the house. Coffee was made for my mom, me and the two kids by the lady who had helped us and we were given a lift back home. The house had been left in absolute chaos. The robbers had eaten things, drank cold drink and had destroyed whatever they couldn’t take. The Shelly beach police from all kinds of departments had rushed to our aid and were combing the crime scene. We had been held hostage and threatened from approximately 1:00am to 4:00am and had then sat, too frightened to move from 4:00am to 5:15am. The police then did their job for several hours. We decided that we would leave for home as soon as the police were finished with us as we were too afraid to sleep for another night in the house. The owner of the house and women I had rented the property through also came to our aid immediately when we called her. The police discovered that the robbers had gained access through a small bathroom window that had no burglar proofing. They were all barefoot and this is why we couldn’t hear them walk.
I have officially decided that my kids are the most coolest bravest kids there are! Both Chris and Rebecca remained calm during this terrible experience and did exactly as they were told. Sadly, this also shows that S.A kids are so conditioned to accepting violent crime. We are all okay now, but I think we will all need help in dealing with this trauma. I am heartbroken, I feel that these people have taken something from me that can never be given back and this is my mere trust and respect for fellow South Africans. The robbers tore open my kids Christmas gifts and made my 65yr old parents beg for their lives. Some of our clothing was recovered and we trust that the police will soon apprehend these criminals.
We are all struggling to sleep and have flashbacks of this terrible night. I see them in my dreams and I smell them everywhere as they sweated profusely whilst they were hyped on our fear. I’m sure you can imagine what this has done to my children. I feel like a barrel of mixed emotions, ready to explode. I am sad, angry, and bitter but also have a sense of emptiness.
For this Christmas, my family received the gift of life, given by men who had no right to either take it or give it. Luck did not carry us through, God almighty folded us in His care and we danced with death, looked the devil in the eye and came out alive on the other side. Please all pray with us that these men will be caught and that we will have the courage to face them in court.
With much love
From
Sally
And on behalf of
Butch, Kosie, Bertie, Sally, Christopher and Rebecca
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Originally Posted by desA
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