'Just don't shoot my dogs'
2009-11-09 22:35
Pretoria - "I'm glad to see you're co-operating."
That is how an armed robber responded when his victim, a former police superintendent from Pretoria, secured his dogs and promised they wouldn't bite the attackers.
On Saturday morning at about 11:30, 42-year-old Schalk van der Merwe of Monument Park, was waiting for the gate to close behind his vehicle when two robbers in a silver Jetta stopped behind him with screeching tyres and forced him out of his car.
"My two dogs, Zoltan, a Pointer-Labrador cross, and Clouseau, a Bouvier, came running toward me," Van der Merwe said on Monday.
"I told the robbers the dogs wouldn't bite them, and begged them not to shoot the dogs. I asked if I could go and lock them away, grabbed them immediately and locked them in the bathroom.”
One of the robbers said in English: "I'm glad to see you're co-operating."
'I waited for them to shoot me'
According to Van der Merwe, the robbers asked him for cash and the location of the safe.
He took them to the safe in the guest room, where they made him lie down on the floor and told him not to look up or move.
"The whole time I was waiting for them to shoot me."
They stole his wedding ring, wallet, cellphone, laptop, watch, television and other electrical appliances, which they loaded into his vehicle.
"One of the robbers kicked me in my side and tied my hands behind my back with a necktie."
Two more robbers overpowered Van der Merwe's gardener, Steve Hlatswayo, 35, in the garden before forcing him to lie down on the floor of the master bedroom. He too was assaulted.
The robbers then fled.
Robbers almost knock down cops
Hlatswayo untied Van der Merwe, who grabbed his pistol and ran outside, but the robbers were already gone.
Van der Merwe's vehicle was found later that night in Centurion, when the robbers nearly knocked down two police officials.
The robbers then leapt out of the vehicle and ran away.
According to Van der Merwe, the Jetta had been stolen earlier that morning from a home in Sekretarisvoël street.