Fearless robbers terrorise rural area

TWO families were terrorised by a gang of brazen robbers in separate incidents on smallholdings outside Port Elizabeth early yesterday.

The intruders – two in the first case and four in the second – broke into the properties, just 2km from each other, in the space of two hours.

In one of the home invasions, the owner was beaten and also stabbed with a 30cm panga.

In the other, the homeowner fought back, taking on his assailants with a spade and a belt.

Residents in the area are now worried the attackers will return.

Police have assembled a team of detectives to track down the perpetrators.

A 30-year-old man was taken in for questioning yesterday, but released later due to lack of evidence.

The first attack happened in the early hours when Brian Transel, 44, fought off two intruders with the spade and belt after they smashed the window of his daughter’s bedroom.

The house is on a smallholding off Tembani Road in Crockarts Hope, near Greenbushes.

Transel’s wife, Esme, 39, told how, after being awakened by the barking of their dogs, she saw two men at a sliding door.

“I screamed and banged against the door. They just stood looking at me and even started shouting at me.

“They were not scared of us or the dogs,” she said.

As her husband raced to the kitchen, the two men ducked around the house to their 11-year-old daughter’s bedroom.

“I just heard glass shatter and went running to the bedroom with a belt in my hand,” Brian said. “They had used a log to break the window.

“I was screaming at them and swung the belt out the window in an attempt to hit one of them.”

Esme, meanwhile, grabbed their terrified daughter from her bed and rushed into the adjoining main bedroom.

Brian said: “I then saw a spade and grabbed it.

“I started swinging the spade through the broken window and one of the men said he was going to shoot me.

“Luckily, my daughter was out of the bedroom and I ran out and closed the door,” Brian said He waited at the door with a spade. “I was waiting for the door to open and I was just going to start swinging,” he said.

But the intruders ransacked the young girl’s room and fled.

Nitrous Security armed response manager Vicky Coetzee, 40 – who arrived minutes later – chased the men.

But by 3am, the robbers – including two others thought to have been hiding in the bush – had moved through several plots and attacked another couple in a house off Dustpan Road, less than 2km from the Transel smallholding.

The second attack left Jeff Jackman, 57, in hospital after he was stabbed in the shoulder.

“I was still searching the bushes and driving up and down when a car came screaming up to me, saying they were taking him [Jackman] to hospital and the robbers were still there,” Coetzee said.

“I rushed to the house and found blood all over the front stoep [along] with a panga.

“A loaded gun was lying on the grass near the front entrance,” Coetzee said.

Nitrous Security alerted its sister company, Atlas Security, to assist with the search.

Atlas operations manager Monty Montgomery said Jackman’s wife had been attacked in one room before the robbers went into the bedroom her husband was sleeping in. “They threatened to kill them,” Montgomery said. “The men started wrestling with him [Jackman] and he was stabbed in the shoulder with the panga.

“During the scuffle, he managed to disarm one of the attackers and stab him . “The robbers fled a short while later. “They stole various small items, but other items such as a plasma [TV] were found hidden in nearby bushes.”

Police spokesman Captain Johan Rheeder confirmed the incidents.

He said a man taken in for questioning had been released due to a lack of evidence.

Farm Comm chairman Willie Bosch said members had been alerted to the first attack by a call for help over the resident group’s radio network.

In response, members in 30 vehicles had rushed to the scene and searched the area.

“We are on high alert as they are armed and dangerous,” Bosch said. “It is a grave concern that this gang was so brazen.”

Bosch said a meeting would be held tonight to discuss the attacks and security measures for the area.