Beware of robbers in Arboretum
2006-09-07
A BRISK early morning walk in Paarl’s Arboretum turned into a nightmare for an 86-year-old British visitor on Monday.
Tix Thomas was grabbed from behind, his cellphone pulled from his shirt pocket and his wallet and keys stolen from his trousers.
“I was walking along the path when a cyclist came up from behind,” a shaken Thomas relived the incident at 09:30 on the bank of the Berg River.
Leaning on his cane, he struggled back to the pedestrian bridge where other hikers came to his assistance.
By the time the police arrived, Thomas had managed to stop the bleeding from a wrist wound where the assailant had tried to tear off his watch.
He was pressing a bloodsoaked handkerchief to a deep gash on his hand while giving the police a description of the man on the BMX-type bicycle - about 18, short, with a brown complexion.
“He asked me for money, but I said sorry, I’m walking. The man suddenly jumped on me and started wrestling with me."
Thomas, his jersey still covered in grass from being wrestled to the ground, accompanied the police to the crime scene.
Constable Elroy Maarman searched the brush and found the wallet and keys, discarded when the attacker fled with the cash and cellphone.
“I can’t understand how the Municipality allows people to walk in the Arboretum when attacks like these occur,” a bystander voiced his dissatisfaction.
“There should either be signs warning the unsuspecting public, or permanent security guards.”
According to Thomas’s son Richard, from Wellington, his father’s wounds were dressed, but he was “still shaken.”
Thomas plans to return to England in December.
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