A Cape Town photographer faced his worst fears when he was stabbed five times while fighting off three knife-wielding burglars who appeared to be after his two-month-old baby, while his girlfriend locked herself and the baby in the nursery.
Craig Kolesky, 37, an adventure sports photographer, said yesterday that their Oranjezicht home was covered in blood following the attack at around 11pm on Friday. He needed about 38 stitches.
His girlfriend, Yvushka Makein, and baby, Koby Kolesky-Makein, were unharmed, but Makein’s mother, Wiebke, who was asleep in the lounge, was stabbed three times in the arm. She needed 20 stitches.
A still shocked Kolesky told Weekend Argus the three men – one of whom tried to break through the nursery door – took nothing from the house. It appeared they wanted only the baby.
Makein said the men scaled a wall and entered the house through a bathroom window.
They made their way downstairs where Wiebke Makein was accosted, before returning upstairs.
“They sat on my mother in the lounge for 20 minutes telling her she was going to die.
“When two of the guys went upstairs saying ‘We need to go up to (the nursery)’, my mom screamed ‘No, it’s a child’.”
Kolesky said when one of the men asked “where’s the baby?” he saw red.
“The way that guy was kicking the [nursery] door down was crazy.”
He explained that he had been sleeping with his girlfriend and son upstairs, but when they realised there were intruders in the house, Makein ran with the baby into the nursery and locked the door.
Makein said: “I hid him [Koby] between a toy box and his cot so they wouldn’t get him immediately if they managed to break in. [One of them] kept screaming that he wanted the baby. I kept thinking how I wouldn’t be able to live with it if something were to happen to [Koby].”
Kolesky doesn’t even remember being stabbed.
“I kicked the one who had a knife over Yvushka [before she ran into the nursery], all the way down the stairs. He got up and came straight at me. Downstairs I had two guys coming at me with knives. They kept screaming ‘Where’s the money, where’s the child?’
“I don’t even remember the stabs, I was just fighting. They just missed my kidney.
“They stabbed me at the top of my elbow with a skinny blade and punctured some nerves and tendons. My hand has about 14 stitches,” Kolesky said.
Makein said her mother said she did not want to have to see Kolesky die, “so she just held the other guy while she was being stabbed”.
Makein screamed, but said no one heard her.
“I was on the balcony screaming for someone, but no one could hear me because there was a party across the road and it was too loud. I thought I was going to find Craig and my mom dead.”
Eventually Kolesky managed to get out of the house and ran to get help from neighbours, who called the police.
“I told one of the guys I could withdraw R50 000 for them. He got excited and went upstairs to show his friend my wallet and I managed to get out of the gate in those 10 seconds.
“I was screaming like you’ve never heard.”
The police were on the scene within minutes, but the men ran away.
“When I ran back into the house they were running out upstairs. They were very well-dressed, well-groomed, and the way they were holding the knives and stabbing showed they knew what they were doing,” Kolesky said.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer November Filander said yesterday that no arrests had yet been made, and that police were investigating. - Sunday Argus