A resident of this farming valley’s worst fears came true on Friday afternoon when he was held at gunpoint by two farm attackers.
HEIDEL VALLEY – Mr Justin Behrendt (29) was attacked at around 17:50 while he was on the veranda of his house. The attackers wore home-made balaclavas. One suspect was tall, wearing a red, long sleeve zip-up sweater, and his accomplice much shorter with chubby features, and wore a blue striped T-shirt.
Several attempts to tie Behrendt’s hands failed, despite a hard blow to the back of his head and threats with the firearm. The one attacker eventually had to keep him physically contained while they ransacked the house, asking for a safe, firearms, laptops and money.
Finding only a 32 inch flat screen TV and Behrendt’s Samsung tablet phone, the robbers commented that they wouldn’t steal his car, (a 1980’s VW Citi golf) saying, “What? Must I take this piece of sh*t?”
The robbery was interrupted when Behrendt’s girlfriend, Susanna Oosthuizen, arrived just after 18:00. “I knew I had to warn her, no matter what the consequence, so I broke free and ran, all the while just waiting for a shot to go off,” he explained.
Upon seeing a frantic Behrendt running from the house, waving his arms and screaming, Oosthuizen immediately dialled J&M Farm Security, her neighbour and family members. Unable to reverse the car on the gravel road, she tried to run over the taller, armed attacker who was leaving the scene with the television set under his arm. The attempt failed and the two men set off into the surrounding bush.
