'I'll shoot you where you pray'
2006-12-06 08:51
Pretoria - Water, a wheelchair, a prayer and a panic button - these might have been what saved an elderly pastor from Haakdoring, north of
Pretoria, after an armed robber threatened to shoot him.
"They beat and kicked me black and blue," said pastor Willie Breet, 78, of
the Burning Bramble Bush church.
Breet, five of his workers and a domestic worker were held up by armed
robbers between 10:00 to 12:00 on Tuesday morning. The robbers initially
pretended they wanted to buy chickens.
The robbers fled with R22 000, jewellery, several firearms, cellphones and
the keys to the pastor's bakkie.
'I prayed for calm'
"I went to pray for a sick person in the morning and then went to buy
bricks. When I stopped in front of the church hall at my house, a man
approached me and said he wanted to buy chickens."
"I hooted for my workers, but the man said I must stop making such a noise. A second robber approached and said 'I don't feel like your nonsense, we are
busy robbing you'".
He took Breet's cellphone from his shirt pocket and ordered him to get out
of the bakkie. He was assaulted while he got out.
Breet said a third robber held up the workers in an outside room. They were
later brought out and made to stand next to the bakkie.
"I threw the key to the safe under the bakkie, but one of the robbers saw it
and grabbed it."
Two men who arrived to deliver the bricks were also robbed and held up.
One of the robbers took Breet to the church hall and said, "I'm going to
shoot you here where you pray for people".
"I said he can shoot me, but I'm first going to have a drink of water
because I'm thirsty. I walked through the church hall towards the kitchen
and the robber followed."
"He saw my wheelchair against the kitchen wall and told me to sit in it so
that he could shoot me."
"While he was pulling on his gloves, I quickly pushed the panic button. The
next moment everybody ran away."
Breet said he kept praying to the Lord for calm. "It felt as if I
was going to have a heart attack."
He said the police were investigating the incident.