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After fleeing Gauteng, selling her house, and packing up all her belongings because of the high crime rate in the province, a woman began her two-year solo journey along the Garden Route earlier this month. Sadly, her first stop, which was meant to be a two-week stay at a guesthouse in Jeffreys Bay, saw her being assaulted and robbed at knifepoint recently.
The woman, who would prefer to remain anonymous, said that after selling her house in Gauteng, she placed all her belongings in storage and packed up her car with all the essentials she would need for her two-year travel experience along the Garden Route.
Her belongings include expensive equipment such as a laptop, computer monitor, and cellphones which she needs for her work-from-home job.
As part of her journey she said that she planned to stop over and stay in each town for a maximum of two weeks with her first stop being a week-long stay in Jeffreys Bay.
She said that after checking into a guesthouse in Jeffreys Bay on January 14, two days later she woke up to find that her laptop, backpack, cellphone, two headsets, three routers, and her spare car keys were stolen, while she was asleep.
She then reported the stolen items at the local police station.
“I could not understand how anyone knew that I had valuable equipment in my place, since no-one knew me in town and I had only been there for a few days,” she said.
She further said that since the guesthouse did not have fencing, she worried that the alleged thieves would steal her vehicle as well, using her spare key.
Thankfully the owner of the guest house, who also stays on the property but uses a separate entrance to his unit, arranged for a safe parking space thereafter.
To her surprise, shortly after 23:45 the following day on January 17, she was awakened by two men who had entered her unit carrying knives.
She said,
She said that they then put a cloth in her mouth and tied her hands using the cord from the lamp on her bedside table.
The two men proceeded to move her under the bed and placed a couch on top of the bed, to ensure that she could not move or scream while they raided the place.
“I was so scared that once they were done raiding the place that they were going to rape me. I was mentally preparing myself to scream even if it meant that they were going to kill me. I was ready to put up a fight,” she said.
Thankfully, she said that after some time the owner, who stays on the bottom level while she was on the top level of the double-storey house, began screaming and shouting and the two men fled the scene.
She said that the owner then helped her get out from underneath the bed and untied her hands.
They soon discovered that on the first evening the thieves entered the unit through the kitchen window, while on the second evening they entered through the window close to the living room.
Some of the items stolen on the second night included her second cellphone, router, speaker, power bank, hiking bag, tent, sleeping bag, hiking boots, running shoes, and sneakers.
“The value of the stolen items was about R60 000, and it all must be replaced for me to continue working,” she said.
After reporting the second incident to the local police, the following day the woman, who has been going for regular trauma counselling sessions since the horrific ordeal, said that she noticed that one of her phones was still active and she could trace the address.
Furthermore, she said that even though her second phone was off she could identify where it was last used.
She then reported the two locations to the police, and they were able to recover one of the phones and arrested a man who allegedly bought the phone from the thieves who ransacked her place.
Unfortunately, she said that the police informed her that they were unable able to retrieve her second phone.
They did, however, notify her that a suspect, whose fingerprints were positively linked to the crime scene, had been arrested.
The police were also able to recover her laptop, cellphone, headset, and two of her routers which were stolen during the first break-in.
After leaving crime-ridden Gauteng to seek a safer place along the Garden Route, she said that she was shocked that the quiet town of Jeffreys Bay also faced trouble with violent crimes.
She said that she believes that there will be more victims of similar crimes in the future.
“I want tourists to know what happened to me while I was in town, because I want them to be more vigilant,” she said.
The guesthouse owner, who would also prefer to remain anonymous, said that they have experienced petty theft on his property, but never any violent crime.
He said that he felt very sad that not only did one of his guests experience major material loss, but also had to endure physical assault.
“Robbing someone is one thing, but to physically assault someone so violently is unheard of in this area. I don’t know why this happened,” he said.
He further said that his upstairs unit did not have burglar bars because he did not think anyone would be able to access the unit, since it was so high.
Since the incident occurred he said that he has placed burglar bars on the windows, and has placed extra lighting throughout the property for greater visibility.
He said that he has always felt as if he was “living in a bubble” in Jeffreys Bay but that bubble has popped, and he is now living in fear in his own home.
