'I could have lost her' - former cop on wife who was stabbed
26 September 2016
m.news24.com
Cape Town – A couple have been left traumatised after three men sabotaged their bakkie and launched at them with a knife in Durbanville at the weekend.
The attack on Friday night was such a close call, said Leon van Lill, that the blade which penetrated his wife Petro’s shoulder missed a neck artery by 3cm.
Both their phones were taken.
"We are just lucky that the stabbing wasn’t to the one side, because then it would have been fatal," he told News24.
"It was bad, but could have been worse. This has been a learning curve."
Van Lill, 60, a building contractor, and his wife, 57, chairperson of the Durbanville Netball Club, attended her year-end function at the sports complex on Friday night.
They locked up just before midnight and headed to their convoy of three cars, arranged for safety reasons beforehand.
'You just black out and fight for survival'
Two of the cars slowly drove off, but Van Lill struggled to get his bakkie started. His car had been tampered with and the back tyre punctured.
Three men came out the darkness and ripped the driver’s door open, while he was outside the bakkie. He tried getting in and locking the car, but they kept stopping him.
"It was dark and I couldn’t see their faces. They came at me again and again," Van Lill said.
They moved to his wife’s side, opened the door, stabbed her, grabbed her phone and came back to him. Now inside the bakkie, he used his door as a shield.
He eventually jumped out and shouted at them. They ran off.
His son rushed to the scene and towed their car to the hospital.
Petro was stitched up and later discharged.
"Afterwards, it hits you and you think about what you could have done," said the former policeman.
"When you are in that position, you just black out and fight for survival."
He said the club had had crime problems in the past.
'We have to do something'
Locks were broken, rude messages were scrawled in chalk on the courts, and vehicles were broken into.
"My wife has built up that club in 17 years. They have practices in the evening. We want young people to do sports, but don’t want them to be in danger.
"I could have lost her. We have to do something.”
Van Lill believed that tik (methamphetamine) was to blame for the attack.
He planned to speak to his local councillor, the police and other relevant parties. He recommended that motorists keep pepper spray in their cubbyholes.
Western Cape police confirmed they were investigating a case of armed robbery.
Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut said no arrests had yet been made.
