129) Daylight Robbery
One awful thing that happened to us about this time was that we were robbed. One Sunday Jonny and I had gone out to lunch with my cousin Rita who was visiting one of her friends in Durban. Rita’s friend had invited us all to have lunch with them but Dominic had a previous arrangement so could not come. We had a lovely time and did not get home until about 4.00 pm. As we drove up to our house I could see that the top half of the kitchen stable door was standing open and thought that Dominic must be at home. I was surprised as I had not expected him home until about 6.00 pm. I unlocked and opened the gate for Jonny to drive the car in and went to the back door. I saw then that the door had not been opened, it had been smashed and the bottom section was laying in pieces on the floor. I shouted to Jonny that we had had a break-in and without thinking rushed inside to see what was missing. I was surprised to see the television still there, as TV sets were very popular with burglars at the time. At first it looked as if nothing was gone but then I went into Dominic’s bedroom and saw that his hi-fi set was missing and that the draws of his chest of drawers were open and had been rifled through. In our bedroom the situation was pretty much the same. Draws and doors open and things all over the floor. It would take a while to work out what had been stolen.
I could not find our watchdog, Muffin and called for her. She was curled up in a tight ball at the back of her kennel and seemed reluctant to come out. We were sure that she had been terrified in some way, either beaten or had some sort of poison sprayed in her face. We had heard of dogs that had been killed by intruders by spraying oven cleaner into their faces so that they would not attack. Fortunately although very much shaken and upset Muffin was not physically hurt and recovered quite quickly.
We called the police straight away and while waiting for them to arrive looked around to see what the damage was. We found that the lock on the laundry door had been forced and some of my towels that were in a cupboard in the laundry were missing. It looked as if we had not locked the door to a back room where our garden tools were kept and that the robbers had taken a weeding tool to smash the kitchen door. Once having gained access to the house we thought if they had taken their time to go through our belongings to choose what they wanted and to leave behind the things that they did not want.
The police were pretty through and sympathetic but we could tell that they did not hold out much hope of our belongings being returned. There were so many robberies at that time that our few belongings were rather insignificant. They dusted for fingerprints, examined the area and took our statements. They told us to call at the police station as soon as possible with a list of the stolen items. When Dominic came home he was able to give us a better idea of what was missing from his room and we started to make up a list for the police.
As Christians we had learned to “Praise God in all circumstances” but it seemed hard to do so right then. But after the initial shock we found that we had a great deal to be thankful for. Firstly, that our intruders had left by the time we got home. I could so easily have walked into a group of armed men and been hurt or even killed. They had hurt or frightened the poor dog but she had recovered and was fine. They had made a mess of the house, opening cupboards and leaving things all over the place but they had not actually desecrated the place as we had heard had happened in many other robberies. We had always thought that we were too poor to be robbed but then we learnt that we had a great deal of things and the list we were preparing for the police was getting quite long. You only realise how much you have when someone takes it off you and for a while we would go and look for things and realise that they had gone too. I remember going into the kitchen to start making some supper, putting out my hand to turn on the radio and realising that the radio was no longer there. Yes, it could have been a lot worst so we counted our blessings and praised God.
I could not find our watchdog, Muffin and called for her. She was curled up in a tight ball at the back of her kennel and seemed reluctant to come out. We were sure that she had been terrified in some way, either beaten or had some sort of poison sprayed in her face. We had heard of dogs that had been killed by intruders by spraying oven cleaner into their faces so that they would not attack. Fortunately although very much shaken and upset Muffin was not physically hurt and recovered quite quickly.
We called the police straight away and while waiting for them to arrive looked around to see what the damage was. We found that the lock on the laundry door had been forced and some of my towels that were in a cupboard in the laundry were missing. It looked as if we had not locked the door to a back room where our garden tools were kept and that the robbers had taken a weeding tool to smash the kitchen door. Once having gained access to the house we thought if they had taken their time to go through our belongings to choose what they wanted and to leave behind the things that they did not want.
The police were pretty through and sympathetic but we could tell that they did not hold out much hope of our belongings being returned. There were so many robberies at that time that our few belongings were rather insignificant. They dusted for fingerprints, examined the area and took our statements. They told us to call at the police station as soon as possible with a list of the stolen items. When Dominic came home he was able to give us a better idea of what was missing from his room and we started to make up a list for the police.
As Christians we had learned to “Praise God in all circumstances” but it seemed hard to do so right then. But after the initial shock we found that we had a great deal to be thankful for. Firstly, that our intruders had left by the time we got home. I could so easily have walked into a group of armed men and been hurt or even killed. They had hurt or frightened the poor dog but she had recovered and was fine. They had made a mess of the house, opening cupboards and leaving things all over the place but they had not actually desecrated the place as we had heard had happened in many other robberies. We had always thought that we were too poor to be robbed but then we learnt that we had a great deal of things and the list we were preparing for the police was getting quite long. You only realise how much you have when someone takes it off you and for a while we would go and look for things and realise that they had gone too. I remember going into the kitchen to start making some supper, putting out my hand to turn on the radio and realising that the radio was no longer there. Yes, it could have been a lot worst so we counted our blessings and praised God.
posted by MC at
4:15 pm
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