Durban - An 84-year-old woman is traumatised after being tied up by four robbers who held her and her family at knifepoint in their home.
Irene Lupke, of Queensburgh, has Alzheimer’s disease, but she remembers the incident clearly.
Lupke was sitting on the couch in the living room of her daughter’s house when four young men burst in on Tuesday.
“One of them was holding a knife to (domestic worker) Thobile’s neck.
“I thought they were going to hurt her and shouted at them to leave her alone.”
Thobile Khumalo, 27, had gone out to hang the washing. “When I turned around, there were two boys blocking my way,” she said.
Khumalo said they were so young and “normal” she did not think they had criminal intentions. That was until one of them pulled out a knife and demanded her cellphone.
“I handed it to him and two more boys appeared. The one with the knife grabbed me by my dress at the back. I could feel the cold of the knife’s blade on my neck. I was so scared I started shaking and couldn’t walk so he pushed me,” she said.
When they entered the house, homeowner Dawn Stokes, 59, screamed before one of the intruders shouted, “Hold that b**** and sit her down.”
Khumalo said they went through Stokes’s purse, demanding money and guns.
Meanwhile, the others went to the bedroom and brought Stokes’s 13-year-old daughter and her two friends through from the bedroom. They tied everyone up with cables they had cut from the intercom before ransacking the house.
“They were arguing about whether to tie granny up and the older one said they must.”
The elderly woman pleaded with them to take what they wanted and not to hurt anyone.
“I told them God is watching you and they replied that they had their own God,” said Lupke.
Khumalo believes the four assailants had been staking the house out as they pounced just after Stokes’s son had left.
“They were not in a rush, they smoked cigarettes, leaving stubs on the floor and drank cool drink from the fridge, they must have been here for more than 30 minutes,” said Khumalo.
Police spokesman, Captain Thulani Zwane, said a case of house robbery was being investigated.
Daily News