Durban - WHEN Stephen Naidoo heard that intruders were trying to get into his property, he grabbed a baseball bat to confront the suspects.
Upon seeing him, one of them threw a baseball-sized rock at Naidoo. The rock struck the customer service agent at Eskom in the throat and neck.
Naidoo, 53, of KwaDukuza, who lives with his wife and three children, suffered open lacerations and a fractured hyoid bone. He also sustained soft-tissue injuries to the throat and his vocal cords, on the left side of his throat, were damaged.
Last Monday, Naidoo was working from home when his wife saw three men on the CCTV camera cutting the razor wire off their back boundary wall.
“I heard my wife scream that there were rouges in the garden. I grabbed a baseball bat and ran outside to confront them. All I could think about was protecting my family,” said Naidoo.
His two sons – aged 30 and 18 – ran behind him. He said while walking towards the boundary wall, he saw a two-metre section of razor wire had been removed. “I could not see the suspects. As I got closer to the boundary wall, three men stood up from behind the wall and one hurled a rock at me. The rock was the size of a baseball and had jagged edges. Before I could react or duck, I was hit in the throat. I felt pain rushing through my neck and my airwaves blocked up. I could not breathe.”
Naidoo said as the men fled they continued to throw rocks at him and his sons. “We are lucky no one else got hurt.” He was taken to hospital. “It is difficult to speak at times. I just have to wait for my injuries to heal,” said Naidoo, who was discharged on Thursday.
He said this was the second attempted robbery at his home in two weeks. “There have been numerous robberies in the area. About two weeks ago, a similar incident happened early in the morning. Thankfully, the dogs barked and the robbers fled. My boundary wall is near the R74, so it is easy for robbers to escape.”
He said he belonged to the community crime watch group on WhatsApp and that, in hindsight, it would have been better to call security or the police. “But with their response times and having to protect my family, I had no other choice. Their lives could have been in danger.”
Colonel Thembeka Mbele, a provincial police spokesperson, said a case of assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm was opened at KwaDukuza Police Station for investigation.
The Post