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Durban - While two robbers ransacked the house of a jogger they had kidnapped at gunpoint on Monday morning, a third had pulled her from the floor and bent her over her bed while taking off his pants.
The woman, who spoke to News24 on condition of anonymity, on Tuesday described her ordeal as surreal. But, she said, she has seen the most evil of men in one day, but also the finest of men as it was a passing motorist who raised the alarm.
As her husband looked on helplessly, and knowing her two young sons lay sleeping in their room nearby, she resigned herself to the reality that she was going to be raped.
She believes she was spared a brutal rape by mere seconds, as her attacker’s priorities shifted to escape when he realised the home had been surrounded by police and private security.
‘They were going to kill me if I didn’t do what they said’
A man who had earlier witnessed the woman being bundled into her attackers' car on Manning Road and whisked away, had bravely followed the gang and raised the alarm.
The woman on Tuesday described how she was accosted.
“I had set out on my morning run and I passing along Manning Road when a car came towards me and stopped. Two guys got out and I felt very uneasy and I carried on running. They then shouted at me that they had a gun and they were going to kill me if I didn’t do what they said.”
“They forced me into the back of the vehicle and they said if I didn’t co-operate they would kill me. I gave them the keys out of my pocket and they took me to my house.
"I told them I would help them, but I asked them to understand that my husband and two small kids were at home,” she added.
She said the three seemed on edge, and repeatedly went the wrong way as she directed them to her home.
When they arrived, she was forced up the driveway with the barrel of a pistol pressed between her shoulder blades.
“I opened the kitchen door and then they got very edgy and they wanted the lights on. I told them again I was worried that my husband would get a fright when he saw them and I just wanted to keep the situation calm.
“They walked me upstairs and I turned on the bedroom light and I said to my husband that there were men with me. I just told him to stay calm,” she said.
‘He was about to rape me’
“They made us lie on the floor and covered us with a blanket. They kept saying if we tried anything they would kill us.
"One of them said they had been into my kids’ room and they saw we had two boys, but they would let them sleep.
“One guy was rounding up things downstairs and another, while pointing the gun at me, pulled me up off the floor and made me lean over the bed… it was obvious that he was about to rape me and he was pulling his pants down,” she said.
“I felt completely powerless. The last thing I wanted to do was fight him because my boys were in the other room. I was praying for a miracle, and when they screamed about the security, that was my miracle.
‘There are good people in this world'
“They grabbed me and took me downstairs and told me to tell the guard that I was fine, but they pulled me back again when they realised how many people were outside. The one guy used me as a human shield with the gun to my head and he bundled me in the car,” the jogger said.
With the woman in the passenger seat the hostage-taker sped off.
“It was like being in a movie. He was going so fast, you could smell the tyres burning. I just looked down and I didn’t know anyone was following us at that point. I thought that I was alone.”
“He came to a dead end and then bailed out of the car and I grabbed the steering wheel so it didn’t go down an embankment. I just sat there and I didn’t know what to do, so I waited in the car and it felt like an eternity.
She was later found by police officers who had pursued the car.
Of the man who raised the alarm, she said she would be eternally grateful.
“I will always be grateful for the man that saw what happened and followed us home.
"He was so brave and owed me nothing. I came across some of the most evil men in one day, but also some of the finest. It restores your faith that there are good people in this world,” she said.
