Durban - A brave couple have given a blow-by-blow account of how they fought off robbers who broke into their home in Durban’s Outer West. The husband was stabbed eight times; the wife was left bruised.
The incident happened at the Nkutu Vale gated complex in Waterfall early on Thursday.
The couple, both 68, who asked not to be named, were awoken by shuffling noises in the lounge.
The husband, a machine components supplier, leapt out of bed in his shorts to investigate.
He thought a roaming black-and-white cat had entered the home.
Instead he walked into two men unplugging his television from a wall unit.
“It was a boxing match. I went into attack mode. They were hitting me with decorative glass and clay ornaments. They dropped me to the ground.
“I saw the knife in the guy’s hand when he was on top of me. I did not realise I had been stabbed so many times,” he said.
While he grappled with the men, his wife heard the commotion and began screaming.
A gym instructor, she rushed out of the bedroom in her nightdress. But on the way, she grabbed a wooden wine box they used as a door stopper.
“As I came into the passage one of them was running towards me. I swung the box and slapped him hard on the face.
His shoulders and his head hit the wall and he fell.”
Evidence of the battle could be seen: a family picture frame hanging loosely on the wall with a cracked glass frame.
“He grabbed me by the throat and screamed to me to shut up repeatedly. Of course, I didn’t. We ended up on the floor with him trying to suffocate me,” she said.
In their separate struggles, the men repeatedly threatened to kill them. She said for a moment the house went silent. She was in the passage alone.
“I thought my husband was dead. I peered around the corner and saw him conversing with the men like they were friends,” she said.
The men could not get out through the hole in the gate that they came through, so when the fight stopped, they politely asked the husband to let them out.
“We stood together like mates. I unlocked the gate and let them out.
“One of them lunged forward to grab my TV lying on the floor. I clouted him twice. He stepped back onto the patio.
“The other kept screaming he wanted his phone. He ran in, but my wife clobbered him with a wooden ornament.
We just wanted them out of the house and my wife continued screaming hysterically,” he said.
She found a phone on the bed and, assuming it belonged to the burglars, flung it at one of them and it hit him on the chin. The men fled in a panic over the patio wooden fence.
One man tripped and fell into the swimming pool.
The couple believe they were also shocked on the electric fencing while making their escape. On the patio, the couple found a beanie, pliers, hammer and a huge braai knife.
When the Daily News arrived on Thursday afternoon, glass and pottery were scattered around the house. Droplets of blood dotted the floor tiles. There were blood smears on the wall and gate.
The couple was waiting for the police forensics unit to arrive.
The husband received eight stitches to a stab wound behind his left ear. His back and hands also had stab wounds.
His wife suffered a swollen face and bruises on her hands and legs.
Private security company Securelink spokesman, Steven King, said two phones and keys were taken. He said they searched the area but the men could not be found.
Police spokesman, Thulani Zwane, said a case of house robbery and attempted murder was opened at the Hillcrest SAPS.
Daily News
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