NEW Year’s Day started with a bang and a crash for Empangeni resident Adele Gauld, and not in a good way.
After letting her dogs out for a bit of fresh air at 1.30am last Thursday morning, then locking up and checking a few things on her computer, Gauld heard a strange noise coming from the back door.
Thinking that one of her dogs may have been locked outside, Gauld went and had a look only to see two intruders trying to open the doors.
She put the lights on and the intruders ran around the house.
‘I thought they had fled once they were aware somebody in the house was awake,’ said Gauld.
However the intruders did not give up that easily and moved to the front of the house to try the lounge doors.
It was at this point that Gauld pressed the panic button and a silent alarm was activated.
‘I stood there and watched them trying to force the doors thinking they could never break the lock as it is an old wooden door with glass panels and a strong lock,’ said Gauld.
This did not stop the intruders as they kept on forcing the door. At this point Gauld started screaming hoping to wake her husband Peter, as she watched the men.
‘I could not believe my eyes and the reality of the situation only sunk in when I noticed that the glass panes of the door were broken and the the intruders were able to come in.
Within a few seconds one of them, described by Gauld as a teenager, was in the house. Whilst she was standing in the passage screaming for her husband, the intruder grabbed an ornament from a shelf and threw it at her, warning her to keep her distance.
At this point her husband ran through from the bedroom with a lit flare in his hand.
‘My husband had recently got a couple of flares from a friend and was keeping them in the bedroom,’ explained Gauld.
The intruder seeing the flare grabbed the television off the wall and ran out of the house with Gauld’s husband close behind, throwing the flare at the intruders. ‘The flare quite possibly saved our lives and definitely left a mark on the intruders,’ said Gauld.
With the television in hand the intruders fled and managed to get away.
Moments later the armed response unit and the police arrived and a case was opened.
‘It all happened in a matter of minutes but at the time it felt like an eternity. I am so glad that none of us were hurt,’ added a relived but still slightly shocked Gauld.
They must bring back the death sentence its the only way to prevent that this is happening as I was also stabed in my own home
I cannot believe what lengths some people will go to to avoid getting a SABC TV licence!