Durban - An eThekwini ward councillor is having nightmare flashbacks after her family were robbed in their Yellowwood Park home.
One robber choked her 90-year-old mother until she collapsed, unconscious.
Ward 64 councillor, Billie Prinsloo, 71, and her partner, Derek Airey, 64, were cleaning out their garage and garden shed when three men jumped over their fence and held them at gunpoint in Pigeon Drive a week ago.
“They asked us who was in the house, if we had children and if there were any dogs. They pushed me on to the garage floor. Derek put up a fight and they kicked him off his feet. The back of his head slammed against the floor.
“One hit Derek with a hammer under his foot and tried to stamp on his chest.” Prinsloo said.
One man stayed with the couple while the others went upstairs and ransacked the house.
Prinsloo’s mother, Florence Abramson, 90, was walking in the passage when a robber grabbed her by the back of her throat and pushed her into one of the bedrooms.
“They demanded to know from her the whereabouts of the safe. I heard her scream ‘Billie, Billie, help me’, but there was nothing I could do.
“I told the guy with us to let me help her as she is 90. He told me to stay where I was.
“The grip that my mother’s attacker had on her neck made it difficult for her to breathe and she collapsed,” Prinsloo said.
She panicked and feared the worst when she could not hear Abramson any more.
The gang locked Abramson in the bedroom, took a laptop, cash, cellphone and a camera and fled.
“We did not know if they were going to shoot or not. The five-minute incident seemed an eternity. My mother is very traumatised and scared to be alone since the incident. Now we don’t leave the gates open, even if we’re in the garden,” she said.
Prinsloo suggested people carry panic buttons with them.
“It seems we are not allowed to do gardening or cleaning any more,” she said.
Paramedics revived Abramson. Airey went for a medical check-up and he found that the impact of the fall had injured his ear.
Police spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, confirmed the incident and said Montclair Police Station was investigating a case of house robbery.
No arrest has been made at this stage.
Daily News