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'Scream, and you're dead'
18/07/2007 10:10  - (SA)  

Virginia Keppler, Beeld

Pretoria - "They took one of my husband's socks out of the laundry basket and put it in my mouth with a gun and told me if I shouted, they would kill me.

"Then I said: 'Sorry, sorry'."

These were the words of Driekie van Rooyen, 50, from a smallholding in Kameeldrift to the west of Pretoria, after she and her husband, Henry, 56, were overpowered, assaulted and robbed by five men, two of them dressed in police uniform, on Monday night.

Van Rooyen said he and his wife were overpowered while he was fetching coals to make a fire. His wife was on the top floor watching 7de Laan when the men overpowered him.

"One of the men had a police radio. The other three were dressed in civilian clothes. They were all armed," he said.

The robbers took him to his wife and demanded money and firearms.

"I said one of them had already taken my wallet and that I didn't have any firearms. One of them found my .22 pistol's magazine in a bag and that made them angry and aggressive. They slapped me, hit me with the fist and beat me against the head with a pistol," Van Rooyen said in tears.

The robbers shackled his feet and tied his hands. They also tied his wife's hands behind her back and put a cord around her neck.

They ransacked the house and put a .22 pistol, a 303 hunting rifle, two cellphones and several pieces of household items in the couple's bakkie before attempting to flee.

The bakkie stalled at the gate, and the robbers fetched Van Rooyen at the house and dragged him down the dirt road to restart the bakkie.

"I activated the bakkie's satellite tracking system and when they tried to drive off, the bakkie cut out."

Inside the house Mrs Van Rooyen untied her feet and hands. "I took a ladder and climbed into the space between the ceiling and roof and covered myself in insulation."

After it became quiet, she climbed down, got into their Mercedes-Benz and nearly drove over her husband and the robbers in an attempt to reach the neighbours.

"The Lord gave me strength to do it," she said. When the robbers saw her, they left Van Rooyen in the road and fled.

The couple's son Jaco, 30, moments later drove past the bakkie on the dirt road and was immediately concerned. Shortly afterwards his father appeared from the dark and they rushed to the neighbours together.

A group of residents tried to pursue the robbers, but a shoot-out ensued and the robbers fled with two firearms and two cellphones.