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Cases in the News

Gran, 70, chases off burglar
27/07/2006 23:34  - (SA)  

Cheri-Ann James, Die Burger

Port Elizabeth - "They must be thankful I didn't find them in my bedroom because I would have attacked them with an axe!" said an angry Rina Coetzee of Sunridge Park after catching a burglar in her lounge.

Coetzee, 70, who keeps an axe and a gun next to her bed, said she was woken from her afternoon nap on Thursday because of barking dogs.

"I got up and was going towards the kitchen when I heard the security gate make a noise.

"When I went into the lounge, I saw a youngster on his hands and knees on the floor, looking up at me.?

Coetzee said she had no second thoughts and charged at the youth, shouting at the top of her voice.

He got such a fright that he turned tail and fled.

Kicked in the front door

A second would-be burglar, waiting outside, also took to his heels.

Coetzee said she thought they were about 19 years old.

"I praise the Lord because they turned and fled.

"My biggest fear is that I might be raped.

"I've been in a state of shock since then."

Apparently, the burglars scaled a wall behind the house and then came around to the front where they kicked in the front door.

Jackie Nel, Coetzee's domestic worker, said she would do the burglars bodily harm if she laid her hands on them.

"I shiver to just think what could have happened to granny," she said.

According to Coetzee, the burglars got away with a laptop computer that was next to a cupboard in the entrance hall.

"My son left it there and someone was to have come to collect it," she said.

Cans left as markers?

Coetzee said she saw a Coca-Cola can in front of her house after the incident.

"I can't say for sure, but I think the burglars left it there to mark my home.?

Security companies have been warning home owners to be on the lookout for cool drink cans in front of their properties as they are believed to be left there as markers for would-be burglars.