Woman held at gunpoint by intruders

AN Empangeni woman came face to face with three intruders, after they kicked down the front door of her Kildare Heights home.

Samantha Blaylock had said goodbye to her boyfriend, Chuch Pereira as he left to go fishing at about 3am on Sunday morning.

She let her two dogs, Olive and Midnight into the house and went back upstairs to bed.

‘I heard a sound so went to look out the window in the spare bedroom. I saw two men standing in the road outside the complex and thought nothing of it,’ she said.

But minutes later when she peeked out of her bedroom window, she noticed one of the men was attempting to negotiate his way over the steel-spiked wall.

‘I banged on the window, getting the man’s attention. He then jumped back onto the road,’ said Blaylock.

The petite 35-year-old immediately hit the panic button which alerted Night Owl security guards.

‘I ran downstairs to see if the men were attempting to get in another way. As I got to the bottom of the stairs, I saw them kick in the front door. I tried to put my weight behind me, leaning on the door to keep them out the house. But they were too strong for me,’ she said.

Dressed in her pyjamas, Blaylock was trapped between the wall and the door as the men forced their way into her home.

She started screaming as one of the men grabbed her by her arm and yanked her out from behind the door.

Then terror set in as she noticed one man had a gun pointed at her head. His accomplice was armed with a knife.

‘He kept telling me to shut up. The alarm was blaring, Olive was barking and at that point I thought I was going to die,’ said Blaylock.

After demanding her laptop and money, she handed over her bag and her computer from a draw in the lounge.

The knife-wielding man then pointed the knife at her and pushed her into the corner of the lounge as he attempted to pull the DVD player from the cabinet. When he couldn’t get the wires loose, he gave up.

‘It all lasted a few minutes. I didn’t even notice the third man as he stayed in the background,’ she said.

The men then ran out of the house and escaped on foot, leaving the shaken woman in her lounge.

Security guards and neighbours were at the house in minutes. It appeared the men gained access into the complex by pushing the main gate open.

The thugs got away with a laptop, handbag, kettle and two wrist watches.

The Kildare area has been plagued with house robberies including a brazen robbery earlier this month where a couple watched as two intruders broke their lounge door and made off with their TV.