Cape Town - A 54-year-old woman shot an intruder dead and wounded another when they came at her from different sides of her house on her Atlantis smallholding on Tuesday.
She described how she shot at a man who kept on coming towards her, and then she shot him again.
The farm owner, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said her three dogs started barking frantically in her yard just after 5pm.
“The dogs were in attack mode with their hair standing up. I first thought they were barking at snakes because we have a lot of snakes in the area,” she said. “Then I looked out of the window and I saw someone walk past… I then grabbed my hand gun.”
She went outside and as she took a wide turn around the garage, a man hit her left hand with a long iron rod.
“He lifted the iron rod but before he could strike me again, I shot him. He turned and ran away and I ran to the front of the house. There was a second man there… I shot at him and when he kept coming towards me, I shot again.
“He turned around as if to run away and I fled back into the house.”
She phoned the police and her neighbours to warn them about the intruders. “The police were there within minutes. They responded with helicopters, trackers… they were exceptional through it all,” she said.
The farm owner believes the men gained access to her property by climbing over a fence.
She said police found the body of one of the intruders at the back of her house. A knife was also found in the yard. The second man had fled.
“It bothers me to know I have killed someone, but it was a case of him or me. They had an iron bar and a knife… they were here to do me harm.”
The farm owner told the Cape Argus she was still traumatised by the incident.
“My guardian angels were looking after me. If I’d ignored the dogs I could have missed him walking past the window and both of them would have got inside,” she said. “I’m one of the fortunate ones. Two low-lives have turned my life up-side down, temporarily. I won’t let them get the better of me.”
The woman and her husband have lived on the farm for nine years, and this was the first time they had encountered intruders. Her husband was not home at the time of the incident.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Andre Traut said the dead man had not been identified and no arrests had been made.
A murder docket had been opened.
The circumstances were under investigation.
Tuesday’s break-in comes shortly after the Cape Argus reported on the plight of a 47-year-old Belgian-born woman, also an Atlantis resident, after her smallholding was invaded three times in 24 hours. When the Cape Argus visited her on January 24, she said she was “angry and ready to fight back”.
Barbara Rass, the councillor for Ward 32, said higher police visibility was needed in the area. “People’s lives are turned into tragedy and too many lives are getting destroyed… people have a right to live in peace,” she said.
Cape Argus