“He pointed the gun at me and told me to get up and sit on the bed. He held the gun to my forehead. Then I realised, I must keep quiet.”
So says a Kensington woman (66) after a brazen robbery by “bogus police” officers at her home on Monday 14 November.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous out of fear for her safety, says she has lived in the area for the past 35 years. She says this is the first time something like this has happened.
“It was just before 23:00 when we heard the police sirens outside. My son opened the door to investigate what was going on. There were two police vans on the left, two on the right and a white ghost squad car in front of our gate.
“One policeman was standing at the outside gate. My son went out to ask him what the problem was. The officer said they had been tipped off that somebody had been selling drugs on the premises.”
She explains that two foreign nationals run a tuck shop from her house. She says they rent a separate entrance at the back of the property.
“My son came to call me and I told him that’s nonsense. Never have there been drugs on our premises. I asked the officer if he had a search warrant, and he said yes. He kept the paper in his hand but he didn’t give it to me.”
The woman says they had no reason to believe that the men in front of her gate were not police officers.
“I swear those two were policemen. The mannerisms, the authority they had. My son told them that the key to unlock the gate was inside the house. They said he must go get the key and I must stay outside with them. The officer pointed his gun at us to show us he was serious.”
She says once they opened the gate, four unknown men appeared as well.
“My son opened the gate, the two policemen came in and out of nowhere four guys also entered. They were wearing civilian clothes. They came in and told me they are going to search the house. I said it is fine, but if you get drugs in the tuck shop, that has nothing to do with me because that is run by Pakistani tenants.”
She says what happened next played out like a scene from a movie.
“They asked me where the Pakistanis were and we went to the backyard. They grabbed me and my son and we all went to the back. They took the tenants and my son and told them to sit on the floor.
“One of the officers opened a cupboard and said, ‘This is what we want, this is all illegal stuff’.”
She explains that they were referring to cellphones as one of the tenants repairs and sells cellphones.
“They brought me back into the house and locked me in my room. I could hear them scratching around the house. I said I wanted my cellphone to make a phone call, but they grabbed the phone and house keys from my hand.”
She says, at this stage, she still believed they were police officers.
“They came back into my room and then the officer pulled out a gun and told me to keep quiet because I was protesting. He said, ‘Keep quiet or we will shoot you’.
“He was very aggressive. He gave me one hard shove; I fell on the floor and my glasses flew to one side.”
She adds: “I told him, how can you do this, you’re a policeman, I’m a big woman, I’m sick.”
She says this is when the gun was held to her forehead.
“I sat like a statue.”
The four men and the other police officer then appeared from the back of the house.
“They took the TV from my room, they turned my bag upside down. They took my blood-sugar machine; they probably thought it was a purse. They took my son’s two laptops, his phone. I sat quietly. I was scared to come out because I thought they were going to shoot me.”
She explains that after a few minutes, the house went quiet.
“Then my son, who was still at the back, shouted from the window, asking if I’m okay. He said that he thought they were gone. I peeped out of my room and saw that the doors and everything were open.”
She says she next contacted her eldest son and the Kensington Police Station via a landline.
“The Kensington police were here in less than five minutes. When the Kensington police arrived, my son would not let them in because we were scared. But eventually, we allowed them in. They came in and took statements and took fingerprints.”
According to the woman, the perpetrators made off with a TV, two laptops, about 70 cellphones, and cash.
WO David Stemmet, Communications Officer for the Kensington Police Station, says the case is being investigated.
“Police are investigating a residential business robbery. A TV, laptops, cellphones and an undisclosed amount of cash were stolen. No arrests have yet been made.”
