Chefs-cum-thieves hit PE home
2007-04-11 09:17
Port Elizabeth - Two hungry thieves who headed straight for the kitchen at a house in Westering, Port Elizabeth, to fry some chicken, nearly set the place on fire.
After gaining access through the open back door of a house in Van Wyk Street at about 12:44, the two men set to work in the kitchen. From the packet of frozen chicken found next to the pool, it looked as if they were in the mood for chicken.
The domestic worker, Jacqueline Gibe, 36, was busy in the garden doing laundry when she heard a noise in the kitchen.
There she found the two "chefs-cum-thieves" in front of the stove, said Hazel Mqala, police spokesperson.
When Gibe asked the men what they were doing, they replied that they were making food, Mqala said.
Nothing taken
"When she told the thieves to go, they bundled her into a bedroom, tied her up and gagged her."
The thieves apparently returned to the kitchen to resume making lunch, but fled when they heard a noise in the street.
However, they did not switch the stove off and a huge pot of oil caught alight.
When Gibe hadn't heard them for a while she slowly crept to the kitchen, said the shocked homeowner Leandré Putzier.
"On seeing the fire in the kitchen, she immediately switched the stove off and doused the flames with water. But by that time, the damage had been done."
The stove was completely burnt out and there was soot everywhere on the tiles. The back of the fridge was also burnt.
Apart from the fire damage, the thieves broke a bottle of liqueur and emptied the medicine drawer on the kitchen floor.
Gibe was apparently badly traumatised by the event.
"When I got home I thought she was going to have a heart attack.
"Even though I wasn't here when it happened, I'm terrified in my own home now. We'll have to improve the security, because they know exactly what's going on inside. They may well decide to return," Putzier said.
She said what shocked her most was that the thieves weren't interested in the video camera in the kitchen.
"I suspect that they were looking for firearms, because all the drawers in the study were open," Putzier said.
Except for the packet of chicken that was removed from the fridge, nothing was taken from the house.