A bullet from the robber’s gun nicked Ian Du Randt’s toe on his left foot during an attempted home robbery in Maryvale Road on Wednesday, 21 September.
22 Sepetmber 2016
Westville resident, Ian Du Randt, was injured during an armed robbery at his home on Wednesday morning.
A WESTVILLE man who was injured during an attempted robbery at his home in Maryvale Road yesterday has called on the respective authorities to beef up security in the area.
Ian Du Randt, managing director at Compass Medical Waste Services, said he was awakened by the sound of his neighbour’s dog barking between 1.30am and 2am. He said the bark was not normal and was further intrigued when his three German Shepard puppies also started barking strangely. The intensity of the barks was so great that Ian got out of bed and went to the lounge, he unlocked the Trellidor gate and was about to unlock the aluminium door when he noticed a man hiding behind his pool wall.
“A man wearing a black balaclava and three others, whom I did not see at first, starting running towards me. The second guy had a gun and I knew I wouldn’t be able to close the door in time so I tackled the first guy into the pool,” said Du Randt.
The pool had a safety net which protected them from drowning. The robber jumped out from the other side of the pool. Du Randt thought he cut his toe on his left foot in the pool net but realised that a bullet had nicked his toe. Du Randt said he couldn’t point out when the gun had gone off during the scuffle.
“The second or third robber grabbed my wife but she slipped on the water from the pool. By then, my son (32) came in with a bat and pushed the robbers over the pool wall. I’m sure they realised that we weren’t going to give up, so they fled,” said Du Randt.
The robbers escaped the same way they entered his property, by climbing over the fence on the side of the next door property which is used to store municipal equipment.
The Du Randt family screamed for help and alerted their neighbours who then notified the authorities.
“I am thankful to have been able to protect my wife. I strongly believe that had I not tackled the first guy, I don’t know what would have happened to my wife, she could have been shot,” said Du Randt.
He added that the lesson learnt is that we all need to be more vigilant and this incident is a wake up call for all residents to check their security systems at home and make sure they are in working order.
He also appealed to the municipality to cut the grass on its property which serves as a haven for criminals. According to Du Randt, four other homes were robbed in the area this week.
With the gruesome and fatal attacks in Westville recently, Du Randt said, “These brazen criminals are not backing off so the police and armed response teams in the area need to make a concerted effort to catch them. We should all take a zero-tolerance approach to crime.”
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