A burglar got more than he bargained for when he broke into a Waterfall house only to be confronted by a no-nonsense elderly couple who sent him packing the way he had come in
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Plucky seniors fight off black attacker
The attacker had broken into the house in a gated community in Waterfall by breaking through the burglar bars at about 4.30am on Wednesday.
The couple are visiting from the UK, and the house belongs to their son, who was away at the time of the incident.
Once inside, the burglar came up against the plucky pensioners, who wrestled him to the ground and scratched and choked him before he finally got a chance to break free and fled the way he had come in – through a window.
Ronnie Leask, 79, said he woke up around 4.30am on Wednesday. He went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and stumbled upon the robber looking around the kitchen.
“I grabbed him and tried to force him out of the kitchen door. I managed to open the door, but I could not open the burglar bars outside the door. We wrestled all the way into the passage and fell inside the bedroom where my wife was sleeping.
“The burglar had gained entry to the house by breaking through burglar bars in my son’s bedroom (at the back of the house and next to where the Leasks were sleeping).
“As I was trying to push him out the front door, he was fighting to get out the same way he came in.”
His wife, Patricia Leask, 69, said she was woken by the noise and helped her husband fighting off the intruder.
“I grabbed him on the neck and was choking him. He tried to get my hand off his neck. I started scratching him and making a lot of noise.”
She said she and her husband had minor bruises, but “he (the burglar) is worse off than we are”.
“We suffered just minor scratches and bruises, that’s all,” she said. “I knew that I had to fight and protect my life. I am sure that you would have done the same. I am not, and would not be, a victim.”
Patricia said she believed the burglar had accomplices.
“There must have been a few of them because he had taken our stuff and put it outside.
“When my husband caught him, he was carrying nothing. Maybe he was looking around one last time.”
She said the items stolenwere worth about R40 000.
The couple said they were fortunate the break-in happened when their grandchildren were not in the house. They had been there that afternoon.
She said that despite the attack, they would be back in South Africa to visit their family.
“I am not going to be driven away from my family by him.”
The couple said that, as it was dark, they were not able to determine the age of the attacker, but he was slim and they thought he was a young man, possibly a teenager.
Police spokeswoman Lieutenant Nqobile Gwala said a case of housebreaking was being investigated.
Two cellphones, two tablets and a laptop had been taken.
No arrests had been made yet and investigations were continuing.
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