Brave girl saves neighbours
2003-10-01 09:52
Lizel Steenkamp
Johannesburg - "I was so afraid.
"I just wanted someone to come and help me because I did not want to be shot as well."
So says an 11-year-old girl who kept her wits about her and phoned the neighbourhood watch on Friday night when an armed robbery took place on a neighbouring smallholding in Lilyvale, Benoni.
Carolyn Palmer probably saved the lives of her neighbours, Anette Kleynhans, 59, and her brother, Dr Louw Bekker, 64, through the emergency call.
While shots rang out, the grade 5 pupil searched for the number in her mother's telephone book and called "Uncle Gerhard".
Her mother, Lesley Palmer, ran outside at 20:50 to investigate. She told her daughter to wait before she phoned, but Carolyn decided to make the call anyway.
'I was very afraid'
"I phoned Uncle Gerhard (van Seventer, head of the neighbourhood watch) and said I could hear screams and shots. I was very afraid. I phoned him, because he always turns up first."
Van Seventer and his two sons arrived at the smallholding within three minutes and became involved in a shootout with the four burglars.
The suspects dropped two television sets and a sound system and made off with two cellphones, jewellery and R3 000 in cash.
The Van Seventers sped to Glynnwood Hospital with the seriously wounded Kleynhans and Bekker because they feared an ambulance would take too long.
"She (Carolyn) is our hero. Who knows what would have happened if she hadn't phoned. They would probably have killed my mother and uncle," Louise Meyer, Kleynhans's daughter, said.
Carolyn has been edgy since the attack. "It makes one nervous. You wonder what will happen next."
- Beeld