\n \t\t\t \t\t\t
![\"NM](\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/plugins\/rss-poster\/cache\/ab436_652436833.jpg\")
<\/p>\n \t
\n \t\t\t \t\t\t <\/p>\n
The Mercury<\/p>\n
Simone Holmes in her car, which she was forced to drive for two robbers, and the R50 they gave her for petrol. Picture: Marilyn Bernard<\/p>\n
\n
\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
After being held up in her ransacked Durban North home by two robbers, a 24-year-old woman was then forced to drive the men to KwaMashu because they didn\u2019t know how to drive and needed a getaway car. <\/p>\n
The robbers also gave their startled victim R50, from the R3 500 they had stolen, to buy petrol. <\/p>\n
A combination of criminal inexperience on the part of the screwdriver-wielding robbers \u2013 one in his 20s and the other a teenager \u2013 and the calmness and quick thinking of their victim, photographer Simone Holmes, meant she and her domestic worker, Princess Makhaye, escaped unharmed during the robbery last week. <\/p>\n
Holmes returned home at about 11.15am, walking in while the robbery was in progress and found that Makhaye had been tied up. <\/p>\n
Calm <\/p>\n
\u201cA guy walked towards me with a screwdriver and gestured to me to keep quiet. He told me not to scream and said if I did not scream he would not stab me,\u201d Holmes said yesterday. <\/p>\n
Although her heart sank when she saw him, she remained calm. <\/p>\n
The intruders stole money, Holmes\u2019s French passport, three laptops, a computer, and some of her and her housemates\u2019 clothing. <\/p>\n
When the pair were ready to leave they wanted to lock Holmes in a bedroom. <\/p>\n
Holmes, fearing this might lead to violence, quickly said the doors did not lock and they should take her car and go. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s when the robbers came unstuck. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey said they could not drive\u2026 and that I must drive them,\u201d Holmes said. <\/p>\n
The men told her to take them to \u201cthe market\u201d \u2013 Warwick Triangle in Durban\u2019s CBD \u2013 but Holmes did not know where that was and asked them to direct her. <\/p>\n
The pair got lost and they ended up on the N2 north. <\/p>\n
\u201cI started to freak out because I had no petrol and told them I was going to run out. So the guy gave me R50 of my money back.\u201d <\/p>\n
Making conversation as they drove, Holmes asked the older robber if he went to church. He said no, and then asked if she did. <\/p>\n
Remembering that her grandmother had once avoided a robbery by preaching to her perpetrators, Holmes continued: \u201cI told him Jesus loved them and that what they were doing was wrong, but he said God would forgive him.\u201d <\/p>\n
The man said they stole her belongings as they also wanted \u201cnice things\u201d, so Holmes advised him to get an education. He said he dropped out of school in Grade 10. <\/p>\n
During the drive Holmes negotiated to get her laptop and pocket camera back, which the robbers agreed to. She also kept her phone after telling them she would blacklist it, so it would be useless to them. <\/p>\n
Eventually Holmes was made to turn off at KwaMashu and told to stop at the taxi rank. <\/p>\n
She then asked the teenager why he was not in school, but he just shrugged. <\/p>\n
After unpacking their loot, they told Holmes to leave. Holmes asked them to hand back her laptop and camera as they had promised, but they would not do so. <\/p>\n
After reporting the crime to two police officers nearby, Holmes returned with the police to the taxi rank, but the two men could not be found. <\/p>\n
Police confirmed that a docket on house robbery had been opened. <\/p>\n
Last night, Robin Candy, chairman of the Greenwood Park Community Policing Forum, said Holmes was lucky that she had managed to keep her cool and that the criminals were inexperienced. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese were entry-level criminals, and she is very lucky,\u201d Candy said. <\/p>\n
He had spoken to Holmes, who said she had received excellent service from the police. <\/p>\n
While housebreaking numbers were down in the Durban North and Greenwood Park area, the nature of these crimes was a concern. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese criminals are not concerned if people are at home. We get numerous housebreaking reports during the day,\u201d Candy said. <\/p>\n
Housebreakers in the area were brazen, smashing down gates and kicking in front doors, before helping themselves to valuables. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn a recent incident, suspects towed a heavy gate off its rails before breaking into the house.\u201d <\/p>\n
Candy said it was sad that people took such incidents in their stride and saw it as \u201ca normal way of life\u201d, while people overseas were shocked at the stories emerging from South Africa. \u2013 Additional reporting by Yusuf Moolla <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Mercury Simone Holmes in her car, which she was forced to drive for two robbers, and the R50 they gave her for petrol. Picture: Marilyn Bernard After being held up in her ransacked Durban North home by two robbers, a 24-year-old woman was then forced to drive the men to KwaMashu because they didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-15893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}