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May 15 2008 02:23:29:580PM  - (SA)  
Marti Will

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“Then he said: ‘I will shoot you like this’, he put the gun to a pillow, pulled the trigger – the bullet went through the pillow and into the floor.”

Mrs Liz Ellerbeck of Virginia is a born-again Christian and believes it is by the Grace of God that she is alive to tell this story.

Ellerbeck was accosted by three armed men at her home in Virginia last week. They confronted her in the garage when she returned home and forced her into the house.

The men wanted to know if she was alone.

She said she was waiting for someone, which was in fact the truth.

A young man who works with her, Gary Clench, was on his way to fetch office keys. As Ellerbeck was unwell she was not going to work that night.

One of the men held her at gunpoint in the TV room while the other two ransacked the house for valuables.

The man had the gun to her head.

She asked him what they wanted and he answered R15 000 – R5 000 each.

“I told him that I did not have that kind of money.

“He said they would take other valuables. I was calm throughout.

“In the beginning I started speaking in tongues which upset them, and they swore back and manhandled me a bit.

“I knew I was safe and that no harm would come to me.”

Ellerbeck suspected that Clench had already come and gone.

“Then Gareth returned.

“The man asked if it was my boyfriend. I said yes.

“He told me to speak to Gareth through the window.

“I put my arm through the window and I scratched on Gareth’s arm and started speaking rubbish to him.

“He realised something was wrong and when he left he said he saw movement through the curtained window.”

Clench went to fetch another colleague of Ellerbeck’s, Willie Lourens, who lives nearby.

Ellerbeck describes these two men as her guardian angels, the men who saved her life.

It was at this time that the perpetrator snapped at her and pulled the trigger.

Unflustered Ellerbeck told him she had not been feeling well all day and asked to go to the bathroom.

He complied and went with her.

“He must have heard something and he left me alone.

“It was then that the two men came bursting through the front door screaming: “Wat maak julle?”.

The perpetrators got such a fright that they ran into my room, jumped on the bed, breaking it, and went through a solid glass window.

“I was very calm throughout, I was not frightened or nervous. I felt God’s presence.

“The shooting itself was a miracle, that the two men returned to help me, that they were not hurt or shot.

“Yes, God’s Hand was over the entire situation.

“I will not now live in fear. God did not give me a spirit of fear.

“I have forgiven them and put the experience behind me.”

The suspects fled the scene with money and valuables.

The police in Virginia are worried by the recent frequency of armed house robberies at businesses and residences in Virginia.

In a statement the police warn the residents of Virginia to be on the lookout for suspicious people in the vicinity of their homes.

Owners of businesses are also urged to be vigilant during open and closing times at their businesses.

Should something suspicious be noted by a member of the public, they are requested to call the nearest police station on 10111 or 0860-01-01-11 or SMS 32211.

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