My Sister Held Up At Gun Point

What a distressing message to see. I got in from gym yesterday and turned on my computer. On opening Facebook, this was the first status update I saw…

Of course, her cell phone had been stolen and so I contacted her sister-in-law (part of the wonderful family Anne refers to her in her status) and Debi came back to me very quickly with Anne’s office number. I called to find out how she was and what happened.

What a terrible violation of her space. She and her son Darryl arrived home at about 6-30pm on Wednesday night. It was getting dark. They had parked their car in the driveway and the gate was closed. Darryl approached the security gate and as soon as it was unlocked 5 men jumped over the wall and shoved Anne and Darryl into the house. They pushed them into the first room on the left which is a bedroom and cable-tied their hands together. They took Anne’s rings off her fingers and grabbed their cell phones.

One of the men, armed with a gun, stayed with them, while the others began to ransack the house. Shouting ‘Where’s the money? where’s the money?’ Anne said they had none. They found the safe and again shouted ‘where’s the key?’ but Anne didn’t know which key they were referring to. Then they said she was making too  much noise, to they took pillow cases off the pillows and gagged them with them. They emptied Anne’s bag and took all the keys for the house, for her car and for her office and as they were finishing up, Jessica, Darryl’s girlfriend, who had been in the flat behind the house, walked in. She took was cable-tied and pushed to the floor. It all happened very quickly and ended when they got the car keys. The gunman stayed inside with his gun pointed at Jess while the others went outside, but they couldn’t get the gate open. They came back in shouting and asking how to open the gate. Darryl told them to force it open. When the gunman heard the car reversing out the gate, he ran out, slamming the door behind him.

Anne, Darryl and Jess had their hands cable-tied, but not their feet. They got up and managed to call the neighbour who called the local police forum. They were in the area and arrived within 2 minutes.

It was the first time that area had been hit by such an armed robbery. Anne has lived in that house in Johannesburg for 20 years. Her extended family came immediately to her home and stayed with her for several hours. She turned down their offer for her to spend the night at their house. She just felt that she eventually would have to come home, so she dealt with it on the day. Amazingly, the police took finger prints the same night.

This morning I called Anne again to find out how she is doing. She’s doing amazingly well considering the circumstances. Instead of dwelling on it, she’s trying to put it in a box and not let it affect her.  The car has not been found. Yesterday, she had all the locks changed which made her feel more secure.

We discussed what she could have done differently and to be honest, there wasn’t much. It’s not supposed to happen that 5 men hold you up at your front door. It seems it was an opportunistic crime. The Police Forum had driven past just a few minutes before it happened. It seemed that these men in a black car had seen the security vehicle leave the road and they drove slowly up it. When they saw Darryl in the garden, they stopped, got out the car, waited for him to open the gate and then jumped over the wall. Armed with a gun, a knobkerrie and a screwdriver, they began the attack.

We know this happens in South Africa and that other parts of the world are not immune. It’s been a shocking week, hearing of the Tunisian beach attack. The world has gone crazy. Human life is not valued. But this is not new. There has been violence since Cain killed Abel.

Psalm 10 is pretty graphic. Verses 8-11
“He lies in wait near the villages; from ambush he murders the innocent. His eyes watch in secret for his victims; like a lion in cover he lies in wait. He lies in wait to catch the helpless; he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net. His victims are crushed, they collapse; they fall under his strength. He says to himself, “God will never notice; he covers his face and never sees.””

But God does see and He ultimately will be the final judge. We are grateful that Anne, Darryl and Jess are physically fine. Emotionally, they will recover.

Pray for South Africa.

Take care.

God bless you!

In His Grip,

Helga xx 🙂