Pipe bomb explodes in family garden
A concrete water feature was destroyed on New Years Eve after a pipe bomb exploded in an Empangeni garden.
WHILE most people celebrated the arrival of the new year, not everybody experience a pleasant evening.
On New Year’s Eve a family in Empangeni’s Scott Street invited over some friends for a braai.
But the evening took a dramatic turn after neighbours started let off fireworks and firing them into their neighbour’s property.
‘Crackers were set off two hours prior to midnight, but were soon replaced by pipe bombs which shook the ground and rang our ears.
‘Rockets were launched at 45 degree angles into neighbouring yards and general drunken chaos ensued,’ said the Scott Street resident.
‘We stepped away from the patio for relief from the chaos, only to escape injury when a pipe bomb decimated a two inch thick concrete water feature worth thousands of rands next to where we had been sitting.’
When attempting to get the unruly neighbours’ attention, he claimed they fired a rocket directly at him.
‘We phoned the police and a while later two police officers arrived and said they would pop over and chat to them.
‘After they left nothing changed. Then we had a kombi arrive with seven or eight officers. They told us they were too scared to go there as they may get injured and they might go and chat in the morning when all was calm and everyone was sober.’
However, according to the disgruntled resident nothing has happened and the cost of replacing the damaged water feature will be coming out of their own pockets.
