Robbers gets taste of their idiocy

GREG KELEBONYE
Staff Writer | Monday March 8, 2010 00:00

 

'They removed the precast units from the back wall, then cut the inside mesh wire with pliers. My colleague was doing the rounds when the robbers  - seven in all and armed with machetes and crowbars - pounced on him. They tied his hands and feet and placed him on top of a manhole. While one of them placed a rough smelly boot on his neck, they took turns punching him. They wanted him to show them where some white people were lodging as they had information that the whites had money,' said a security guard based at the lodge.  Somehow the robbers must have known that the lodgers they were looking for occupied a unit at the centre of the lodge as they went past all the other chalets to one in the middle of the compound.

One of the robbers managed to open the bathroom window to one of the units in the two-roomed chalet.

'Upon hearing the 'thump' of the robber's feet as he landed, the occupant, who was a man, got up but was overpowered by the gangsters whose friend had already opened the door for them,' said the employee.  The man had pulled a fire extinguisher from the wall to use as a weapon, but faced with 14 hands armed with machetes and crowbars the man was no match for the raiders. They took the fire extinguisher and used it to punish him for resisting them. While some ransacked the room, others held the tenant.

The man's colleague who was sleeping in the adjacent room woke up when he heard the raucous but was met at the entrance by the troop of robbers. They also tried to bludgeoned him with the fire extinguisher as others brandished their machetes in warning for him not to resist, as that would mean worse fate. One of the men would require stitches for his injuries.

In their quest to rob the tenants, the robbers did not notice a second security guard by the security cabin. He managed to raise the alarm and a nearby Security Systems quick response team was at the scene within seconds.

'A panic button was activated at the premises and our patrol people who were nearby went to investigate. Upon seeing our vehicle the robbers fled, went past the Ngotwane River and into the Village flats. It was here that our team called out to the residents to help apprehend the criminals,' said Tumelo, a Control room attendant with Security Systems.

The residents with a strong neighbourhood spirit and united in their effort to deal with thugs who terrorise them, fell on the robbers like a ton of bricks.

'Even the security personnel could not stop the angry residents as they hit the robbers with anything and everything,' said one of the residents at the scene.

The security team managed to rescue the robbers from the angry mob, which was still baying for the men's blood. One of the men is reported to have suffered a near amputation of his leg as a wall he was trying to scale came tumbling down, crushing his leg.

The irony of it is that this was one of the men who had just pulled down a wall to rob people. ' So angry were the people that they wanted to lift the security vehicle in which the thugs had found refuge, but then a combined police and soldier patrol team arrived and that seemed to pacify the mob,' said the witness. The police have confirmed the incident.

'The robbers attacked the lodgers at around 2:00 am. They injured two male inhabitants at the lodge. However they fled when an alarm was raised, went past Riverwalk and into the Village flats where the community woke up and helped apprehend three of the men after an alarm was raised. The rest of the men escaped. Two of the three who were beaten up by the mob remain in hospital while one has been released and is in custody,' said Tlokweng Police Deputy Station Commander, Assistant Superintendent Mogotsi Thelo. He said the men, who are all foreigners would answer to a battery of charges that include, forceful invasion, armed robbery and assault. Armed robbery attracts a minimum 10 years in Botswana. The men's four accomplices remain at large, while police investigations continue