'I thought I was going to die'

2008-01-21 09:08

Virginia Keppler

Pretoria - A young woman from Moregloed in Pretoria had to beg for her life on Sunday morning after two burglars nearly strangled her to death and terrorised her for more than an hour.

The attackers of Elsa Linnenkamp, 24, from the Mantova security complex, entered the house through a bedroom window after bending open the burglar bars and surprising her in her bed at about 04:00.

"Two of them entered my bedroom and one of them immediately started strangling me.

"It was so bad I thought I was going to die. I fought back, but after a while I just couldn't fight anymore."

Tied up with hairdryer cord

"I asked them not to hurt me and promised to co-operate," said a still-shocked Linnenkamp on Sunday morning.

The suspects tied her hands with the cord of her hairdryer, and gagged her with pieces of cloth which they also wrapped around her neck and head.

"They pulled and shoved me about and I had to accompany them everywhere inside the house. I just kept praying."

The suspects put her television set, computer, radio, DVD-player, shoes, cellphones, watch, jewellery and several other valuables into her car.

"They also wanted to take my passport, but I told them they won't have any use for it, so they left it."

She said her attackers spoke in Afrikaans and one of them was very aggressive.

"They wanted to know why the gate was out of order. The electrical fence surrounding the complex was also not working. We had a power failure earlier and somebody had tried to fix the gate, but later just closed it and went away."

Linnenkamp said the suspects tied her hands and feet before fleeing. They tightened the cloth around her head and throat and left her lying on the bedroom floor.

"I untied my hands and called for help after they had left."

Annetjie Linnenkamp said she suspected her daughter's attackers had stepped onto the fire hose next to the complex's outer wall in order to jump over the electric fence.

"I touched the fire hose and to my surprise I was able to pull it out of the ground. It had never been connected and would have been useless in case of a fire," she said.

Police spokesperson captain Prince Mokhabela said the police were investigating the incident.

He said Linnenkamp's car was found in Mamelodi to the east of Pretoria about an hour-and-a-half after the incident.

- Beeld