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  1. #1
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    Default I survived a farm attack and armed robbery

    Hi
    Please feel free to read this, and if you would like to ask questions, please feel free to do so, i will try to answer them. I have shortened the story to remove the more gruesome bits. I hope it will help someone,

    On the 7th November 2012, I was the victim of a farm attack and armed robbery. I am sure that I did some things right, and other things wrong, I am not looking for sympathy , criticism or arguments, if even one person can learn something from what I personally went through, then the time taken to write this, will have been well worth it. There are significant clues through this story that tie up and make sense at the end.
    On the 30th October 2012, I had a major shoulder operation on my right shoulder ( I am right handed ).
    On the 7th November 2012 (it was a Wednesday), it was a cold, rainy day, I was wearing a jersey, under which, my right arm was strapped very securely in a sling. From about 5.00pm, I was working alone in my office (operating a computer left handed), all the other staff had gone for the day, and my brother had gone to a meeting in town. The office is about 50mt from my brother’s house.
    At about 5.45pm, I heard the office door being opened – my 11 year old niece often used to come to the office at about that time, so I did not think immediately there was a problem. Within probably 20 seconds I looked up to see 3 men turning the corner into my office and 2 of them drawing firearms. I am sitting behind my desk, about 2 meters from my office door, which in turn is about 3 meters from the main office door. My 1st thought is “why me, why now?”.
    They “want the money” or they will “kill me”. I told them that I can only put 1 hand up, “we know – you were in hospital”. I told them that the money is in the safe and the keys in my bakkie which is parked outside in the garage. I don’t think it necessary to go into the entire conversation, which is a a mixture of English and Zulu, needless to say that over about 10 to 15 minutes, they made their intentions very clear. There were continuous threats to kill me and how they were going to do it. I spent this time with a 9mm in my left ear (with a thumb continuously fiddling with the hammer), and a knife stuck in the side of my throat. I offer them the computers and to take my bakkie with them – “no” – just the money, though my cell phone(iPhone) was pocketed.
    One of them went to my bakkie to get the keys and came back with my gate remote and house keys, which produced a “you have 1 minute to open this safe” threat. Now, I am trying to co-operate, fearing the appearance of either of my nieces or sister in law, and pretty sure that taking money is not the only thing on their mind – knowing that sending them out, also risks them running into my brother’s family. They also do not want to take me to the bakkie to find the keys which are in the cubby between the 2 front seats. On the 2nd attempt they find the keys, and so we begin the process of opening the safe.
    We have a pistol safe, bolted to the wall inside of a rifle safe – the hard part of this is knowing that my pistol (CZ 100) is inside the safe with the cash float of about R10k at the time. I’m thinking that “can I get my pistol out in time and cock it, left handed, before they have time to react”? Answer no! But I believe that I will get a chance to fight back if I am patient, keep thinking clearly, don’t panic, and look sharp for the opportunity. When the petty cash comes out, the knife gets pushed hard into my throat “where is THE money”? I say there is some more in the pistol safe, as soon as I open this and they pull my pistol out, I see cable ties appear and they are distracted, if it’s going to happen, it has to be now, I’m not going to sit in a chair and have my throat cut. So my fight back against 3 of them begins.
    I manage to push them across the passage into the next office and keep the unarmed one between myself and the knife which is attempting to damage me quite fiercely – it was an extremely savage attack, without any real co-ordination. I manage to push them into a 3rd office and I ran out into the passage – shutting the sliding door behind me – which came off it’s rail and jammed for a moment. Now I can run and escape – except my legs collapse under me, I get up, take 2 more steps and they collapse again – I look down, my jersey is off and so is my sling, my shirt is covered in blood, I get up a 3rd time, when the one guy catches up with me, and we end up wrestling on the floor. I have managed to get a hand on an office chair and I am keeping that between me and him, he is telling his accomplish to shoot me.
    They fire their pistol – it jams and I still don’t know what happened to that shot. He is walking down the passage toward me (one of those images one never forgets) – my pistol is still in its holster (one of those black nylon ones) – and he is looking at it, cocking it, and each time, a round falls out on the ground. After about the 3rd cock, he seems to think it is loaded, he aims at me, by this time I am lying on the floor, against the wall, holding the chair. I watch his finger tighten on the trigger, and as I think it’s going to fire, I duck and then after the gunshot, sit up right again, just sort of propped up against the wall. He looks at me with a strange expression on his face; the oke I have been fighting with also has a strange expression on his face. One gets up, and the other turns around and they walk down the passage and out the office.
    To cut this part short, I manage to crawl out the office and get to my bakkie to use the radio to call for assistance. And so I was taken to hospital with 9 knife wounds, 8 of which were very minor, other than 2 were close to arteries. The other knife wound punctured my right lung, which caused me to spend 11 days in hospital with 2 surgeries, and 15 month later, still suffering a lot of pain. That is the long term consequence of this – not pleasant, not to mention the trauma, and the trauma for my family. My brother had to drive me 80km to hospital with my wife holding me after the local doc had put me on a drip and oxygen and patched me to stop the blood loss.
    What went right/wrong, what can I teach that I learnt’. ? These are hard questions, and I am not really sure of a lot of the answers, I have friends who are police, they said I obviously did mostly right, as I was clearly set up not to get out of there. Before I go into this, we always thought we were “safe” – we didn’t have a routine, we have 4 managers, and staff that are “always around” – often we would load trucks in the evenings, we had guards, – we knew what we were doing. WRONG!!!
    Inside job – without doubt they had VERY good inside information (some of this only came out later during the investigation):
    1. They knew I was vulnerable as I had been in hospital, and only had use of my 1 weaker arm.
    2. They knew we had cash – that was the 1st month we had stopped one of our biggest customers paying his account in cash – it was usually close to R100k – that was “THE money” they wanted, and why we only really had a float – they even knew how much cash we gave the drivers if they went off on long haul deliveries in case the Fuel and CC did not work.
    3. One of the gang I had recognised as having worked for us previously – but there was other inside assistance.
    4. They knew that on a Wednesday afternoon, our staff went to collect firewood – the staff housing is also reasonably close to the office.
    5. They knew I usually worked alone in the evening till 6, or half past, and that my brother often went out on a Wednesday evening and wasn’t at home.
    6. The night guard came on at 6pm, so they had to be in after 5 (gate guard left), and most staff had usually gone, but out before 6.
    7. They knew on a Wednesday that my sister in law did not open her shop – so less chance of people being around.
    8. They did not know we had firearms – nor at any point did they ask – nor did they know the inside of the office – we had 2 other safes in the office.
    9. They knew our vehicles and cell phone were tracked – they dropped my phone 300mt up the road.
    Firearms, there is always the debate that if you have a smaller gun, you will carry it more (bear in mind, I grew up in Rhodesia, on a farm with guns, I know how to handle them):
    1. I have 2 small boys – and my wife used to hate me carrying my gun, and with boys, I stopped carrying it “one up” – after being in hospital – I couldn’t really carry it anyway. And we were “safe” – it wasn’t really necessary. And I would have needed my right hand to get it out the safe anyway.
    2. I had a 9mm and a smaller weapon (possible a .32) pointed at me, I only really watched what the “big gun” was doing – why I am not sure what the other one was.
    3. My CZ 100 saved my life – they did not know how to operate it properly as it does not have a hammer, and it has a long trigger pull. My new pistol is an M&P – also without a hammer – for this reason. As long as I know how to operate it. I carry it 24 hours a day now.
    In my humble opinion, what went right – there was also a lot of luck, some very big divine intervention, and they were not very professional:
    1. I did not panic – even to this day, I marvel at how calm I remained – almost like everything slowed down – guess you only really know how you react, when you are in the middle. I knew there would be an opportunity, I watched his finger tighten on the trigger, I saw the gun smoke, before I heard the shot.
    2. I managed to use a “human shield” from the knife attack.
    3. I think I was a split second from escaping without serious injury – they only got the lung wound in as I ran out into the passage.
    4. I played dead after the gunshot – this was not a conscious decision – possibly shock, but I think someone was watching over me that day – the bullet hit the rivet in the leg of the chair I was holding. This was helped by having 2 knife wounds between my eyes that I am sure they mistook for a bullet wound – I had blood running down my face.
    5. I managed to keep a cool head and get to my bakkie – use the radio, summon assistance, and then still get into the driver’s seat and drive it to the top of the road, where I met my neighbour.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: I survived a farm attack and armed robbery

    Yeesh. Glad you're okay :)

  3. #3
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    Default Re: I survived a farm attack and armed robbery

    Thank you for sharing, glad you came through ok and now carry 24/7

  4. #4

    Default Re: I survived a farm attack and armed robbery

    cpsadrian thank you for this post. Lessons a plenty. Glad you have survived.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: I survived a farm attack and armed robbery

    You did great! Well done. Few would be able to keep calm in the circumstances.

  6. #6
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    Default

    Wow!

    I'm happy you could share. Did the cops catch them? Or has the case gone cold?

  7. #7
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    Default Re: I survived a farm attack and armed robbery

    You're alive, that says it all. Your fighting spirit overcame 3 guys, 2 guns and a knife attack. Hoping you fixed the security issues.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: I survived a farm attack and armed robbery

    Quote Originally Posted by Bighunter View Post
    Wow!

    I'm happy you could share. Did the cops catch them? Or has the case gone cold?
    Thanks, think a lot due to upbringing in the Rhodesian war. Cops only caught the one i identified as a past employee, but the trial collapsed due to no evidence. SAPS made a complete pigs ear of the crime scene - couldn't even find my fingerprints, or any of the other 9 staff who have daily access there, let alone the criminals. The DNA from the blood work has still not been processed after almost 15 months. This was another lesson in frustration, bad enough to go through it, let alone get no justice

  9. #9
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    Default Re: I survived a farm attack and armed robbery

    Quote Originally Posted by chaos247 View Post
    You're alive, that says it all. Your fighting spirit overcame 3 guys, 2 guns and a knife attack. Hoping you fixed the security issues.
    Yes - the horse has bolted, now have a 24 hr a day armed guard, and 16 CCTV cameras - and the big one - NO CASH - this is the biggest lesson - there is no need to deal in this these days - really not worth the risk

  10. #10
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    Default Re: I survived a farm attack and armed robbery

    Quote Originally Posted by AGreeff View Post
    You did great! Well done. Few would be able to keep calm in the circumstances.
    Thank you - it was almost surreal (almost like i was an audience, and not the participant) - very strange - i just tried to focus on waiting for the right time

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