Girl beats up burglar

2003-04-04 23:09

Marlene Malan

Cape Town - A young hockey player and part-time waitress used her hockey stick on a would-be burglar and nearly beat him to a pulp on Thursday morning.

Shortly after the attempted robbery, Leigh Fourie, 18, said she was terrified when she pounced on the would-be burglar. She threatened him, called him names and hit him with the hockey stick.

Fourie said she woke up in her parents' home in Strand about 09:15. Her mother, Evelyn Fourie, had already gone to work in Stellenbosch.

"I was drinking a milkshake in the lounge when I heard glass breaking. Someone was trying to break into my mother's bedroom next door. I crept to my bedroom, closed the door and 'phoned my mother, who told me to go outside and call the neighbours."

Fourie said she decided to use her hockey stick instead because shouting wasn't going to help. Nobody would have heard her above the wind. "I ran down the corridor shouting, rushing towards the man who had in the meantime entered the lounge. "I waved my hockey stick in the air and started hitting him on his head, neck, arms - wherever I could land a shot. He tried to get away and pulled a knife from his pocket, but I told him he should put it away, because the police were outside."

Fourie said the man, in his late twenties, decided to beat a retreat. He jumped through the broken window while she kept hitting him. ""I followed him through the broken glass, and got a few nasty cuts."

"I stumbled and hurt my knee, but when I looked up, he had run away."

The flying squad arrived about 40 minutes later.

- Die Burger