Durban - As one family reeled from a cops-and-robbers shootout in Westville North, neighbours desperately called for help as another gang of men stormed their home.
On Thursday night, Rakesh Ganess and his family were trapped in their garage while robbers shot it out with police around their Kirriemuir Road home. One robber died.
On Friday, in the same street, yet another gang of brazen intruders forced their way into a home.
On Friday night, Navika Singh, who was in the house with her 74-year-old mother, spoke about their ordeal which started with a man banging on her kitchen window.
“I saw him eye-to-eye and even heard him say ‘ha, ha, ha, there are no cameras’,”she recalled.
Behind him, she spotted one of his gang - thought to total four - derailing the gate.
As the man at the door forced his way inside, she fled into her room, ordering her mother into another. They locked themselves in.
“I immediately reported it to all the WhatsApp groups we belong to,” said Singh.
It took about three minutes for the men to ransack the house They took laptops, a home theatre and a set of speakers.
They also forced open the garage door.
“We don’t even know how to do that (without a remote) and we had all our remotes with us,” she said.
Within moments a passing security patrol car stopped and Singh went outside to tell them what had happened. Only after she returned inside did Singh realise her home had been ransacked.
Her mother, Sheila, said she was too scared to sound the alarm, fearing it could provoke the men into turning nasty.
Her son, Vitesh, who sped home when he heard from his mother, said he had heard the shooting at the Ganess house nearby the night before.
On Friday, Ganess said by sheer chance a Metro police van had been driving past their house when their alarm went off while they were being held hostage.
He and his family had arrived home about 9pm and, as he was parking in the garage, his son went to lock the gate and noticed a man lying inside the property next to the wall.
“My son came running up to the car and as we went down to the gate, the man stood up. I immediately noticed he was carrying a gun.
"At the same time, four armed men appeared from around the corner. They were all wearing balaclavas and gloves and were armed with guns.”
The gang pushed Ganess and his family into the garage and stripped them of their valuables.
“They wanted to get into the house. Two of them stayed with us in the garage and three went up to the house. They broke through the door, and the alarm went off as metro police were driving past. One of the gang slipped on the stairs and then there was a lot of gunfire,” said Ganess.
He managed to shut the garage door and get his family to lie on the floor. He said they were all “stiff” with fear.
“I heard someone shouting for us to open the gate. As I opened the garage door, the gunfire started up again, so I just shut it again,” he said, describing the attackers as youngsters, “in their twenties and wanting to act big”.
When the gunfire died down again, Ganess was able to open the gate for police to enter the property.
One of the suspects was lying in a path at the side of the house, while the other four had fled.
A massive manhunt took place as police tracked the suspects into the early hours of the morning.
The family’s boerboel mastiff was found, alive but scared, at the back of the property. Ganess said firecrackers found on the front path may have been used to frighten the dog.
On Friday, SAP spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele confirmed the incident, saying: “One of the suspects, aged 25, was fatally shot. A 9mm unlicensed firearm with 11 rounds of ammunition, a stolen cellphone and wallet with cash and bank cards were found in his possession. Four other suspects are being sought by police.”
Meanwhile, staff at the Metro Police Westville North mobile CCTV command and control centre, only a couple of kilometres from Kirriemuir Road, said they had been busy with several instances of housebreaking during the course of Friday.
The upmarket suburb of Westville North has been rocked by a crime wave, with numerous housebreakings and house robberies, including an incident in Matapan Road where ADT security guard, Themba Mqwika, was killed when responding to an alarm.
eThekwini Deputy Mayor Fawzia Peer recently addressed a large community gathering in Westville and police visibility and patrols were increased. A
24-hour mobile CCTV camera was installed.