Armed robbers strike again
2010-03-04
Lise Beyers
TWO female Turkish students were amongst a group of young people who were attacked during an armed robbery in a house in Northern Paarl early on Saturday morning. This comes barely a week after two similar robberies took place at local guesthouses in Paarl. During one of the robberies, a German couple was held hostage. At 02:00 three men gained access to a well-secured home in Klein Street by ripping burglar guards out of a wooden window frame in the kitchen, while all the students were sleeping. They proceeded to the second floor where they tried to enter rooms. When they realised that the doors were locked, they started to bang on one of them. Inside one of the bedrooms, Seda Tütünuioglu, had woken up. She immediately phoned one of the other students to warn them not to open their doors and then she phoned a friend to ask him to contact the police. In the mean time the robbers went back down the stairs and entered Stefan Kruger’s bedroom. They held a knife to his throat, slapped him around and tied up his hands and feet. They demanded any valuables which he might have. Kruger then had to accompany them back up the stairs where he was forced to coax Tütünuioglu and another Turkish student, Cansu Turunc, out of their rooms. Once again the men demanded valuables. Only half an hour after Tütünuioglu’s emergency call, the police arrived. But the situation did not end there. Another student, Carla Palm, was fast asleep and unaware of the events in the house. She was awoken by police officers knocking on her window, but could not answer their questions about a burglary. The police entered the house and started looking around the ground floor. Two of the officers left the scene, while another officer accused Palm of making a prank call. Palm was astonished at this accusation, but was starting to become suspicious because various items were scattered on the floor and because Kruger was not in his room. While the remaining police officers wandered around, she went upstairs. Here she was grabbed by one of the robbers and threatened with death if she made a sound. Eventually, when one of the policemen went upstairs, he was attacked by the men and a glass was thrown at him. The attackers then fled into a room, once again ripped out burglar guards and escaped across the roof. By the time reinforcements arrived, there was no sign of them. Now the students, all in their first year at a culinary academy in Simondium, fear for their lives. Kruger, who is from crime strapped Johannesburg, said that nothing like this had ever happened to him in that city. And the Turkish students said that they were aware of the crime situation in South Africa before their arrival, but had never thought that they would become victims of crime in a little town like Paarl. Tütünuioglu is seriously considering discontinuing her 15 month cookery course and returning home to the city of Izmir. “Because of reports of crime in South Africa we have been very vigilant. That is why we sleep with our bedroom doors locked every evening. “After this, I don’t think that I could spend much more time here. And it is just going to get worse towards the World Cup.” The three fugitives are described as being coloured males. One of them has a Rastafarian hairstyle and a beard. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Paarl Police at 021-807-4000. * Last week a resident of Koning Street, also in Northern Paarl, was almost stabbed by a knife-wielding burglar. Gerhard Swart noticed a suspicious looking man enter his neighbour’s side door. When Swart went to investigate, the suspect emerged from the front door with a bag over his shoulder. Swart confronted the man, who then tried to stab him, but he managed to overpower him and summoned his wife, Irma, to bring a rope. They then tied up his feet and secured his hands with cable ties. Irma had in the mean time contacted the police, who were on the scene in full force within minutes. The burglar had allegedly wandered through the neighbouring house unnoticed by the owner, who was in the back garden. He had helped himself to a laptop, GPS, cellphone and binoculars, before finding the front door key and letting himself out. The suspect, Veldico Borrins (22), was out on parole after having been arrested for similar crimes. A spokesperson for Paarl Police, Capt Louise du Plessis, said, “The community is requested to be vigilant concerning the safety of their premises at all times.”
More
News
|
