Durban - A balaclava-clad gang’s weekend of terror in Westville has rocked the suburb, whose residents met last night to plan ways to prevent further attacks.
Brazen criminals were undeterred by the presence of security guards, surveillance cameras and dogs.
Young children arriving from school almost walked into the first robbery at their home while in the second incident on Sunday night a family was held up while having dinner.
A gun was held to the head of a child while his father was slapped and kicked in the face. Their ordeal lasted an hour.
In the first incident, in Melrose Avenue at 1pm on Friday, four men held up a security guard and two domestic workers while a fifth man stood outside with an AK-47.
The homeowner, who gave his name only as Faradh, said a black VW Polo had driven around the block twice and stopped outside his back gate. Three men got out of the car and inspected his swing gate.
A street CCTV camera caught the men breaking the lock and lifting the gate off its hinges in 10 seconds.
“Three men ran into the yard followed by a fourth man who held an AK-47 rifle. The driver of the car opened the gates and reversed into the yard. One of the men held my security guard at gunpoint and brought him into the house,” he said.
His two domestic workers heard the guard scream. The workers tried to walk out the front door but one of the men saw them and pulled them back in, he added.
“They forced the domestic workers to sit on the lounge floor. They brought in the guard and made him sit next to them. They then took one of the domestic workers with them as they walked around the house looking for valuables,” said Faradh, who was at mosque at the time.
Among the items stolen was his CCTV recording equipment, which had footage of the inside and outside of the house. Faradh said he was left with only unclear footage from the street camera.
“The CCTV camera footage DVR was one of their first targets. It went into the boot of the car before they started searching the house for valuables,” he said.
Six minutes into the robbery, Faradh’s children arrived home with their lift club. They stood at the driveway gate and pressed the buzzer.
“The men... didn’t even bother answering. My kids kept pressing the buzzer because they found it strange that no one was responding,” he said.
“They were not aware that a robbery was in progress.”
One of the robbers grabbed the guard and together they peered through a window. Faradh said the robber asked the guard if he knew who was at the gate. The guard said no.
“One of the men then goes to the main bedroom and kicks the door open. He then asked the domestic worker to sit next to the door. Waving his gun he asked her to switch on the room lights. Two of the men ransacked the room and made off with valuables,” he said.
Annoyed by the intercom buzzing, the robbers ran out through the back door and sped off in their car.
Faradh said the domestic workers were traumatised.
Residents of the area had a meeting last night to discuss ways of preventing robberies.
Melrose Avenue has a beacon on the road to slow down vehicles when they enter.
The road has one guard at the entrance, checking cars. Another two guard huts and guards are positioned further along the road.
In the second incident in Essex Terrace on Sunday night, a family was dining when four men carrying guns barged into their home.
The robbers grabbed one of the children playing in the passage and placed a gun to his head, a police source said.
They walked into the dining room and demanded everyone remain quiet. They made the homeowner sit on his knees and one of the robbers slapped him on the ears while another kicked him in his face, breaking his nose.
They told the family that they did not come for televisions or appliances but cash and jewellery.
They also lifted the trap door to the roof looking for any hidden valuables, the source said.
The family were terrorised and locked in the bathroom before the robbers escaped in two of their cars.
Police spokesman, Colonel Jay Naicker, confirmed the 36-year-old homeowner was with his family at their residence when four armed suspects entered through an unlocked back door.
“At gunpoint the suspects forced him into his main bedroom where they took his firearm from the safe and fled the scene with his vehicle. A case of house robbery was opened at Westville SAPS and no arrests have been made,” Naicker said.
Daily News