Armed Response

An Overport woman, who was dragged several meters by her throat during a home invasion on Wednesday morning, was fortunate to escape uninjured. Blue Security operations manager Brian Jackson said the resident was outside at the back of her property about to hang up laundry, when two men accosted her at around 4.30am. Her husband was still in bed in the house.
“The men grabbed her by the throat, dragged her back into the house to a bedroom, before shoving her onto a bed,” Jackson said. “The men ordered her to keep quiet and threatened to kill her and her husband. They then demanded to know where cash was kept in the house, but when she got up to show them they shoved her back onto the bed.”
Jackson said it was not clear whether the men were armed, but they kept putting their hands beneath their shirts and threatening to shoot. “She then told them where they could find cash in her handbag and the men then grabbed her bag, a cellphone and a digital camera. They demanded keys for the gate and fled on foot. Fortunately, the residents were not injured during the home invasion.”
Mayville SAPS attended the scene of the crime.
Jackson advised residents to be vigilant, especially during the early hours of the morning and in the evening which are prime times for robberies. “If you have an electric fence and external beams, switch both of these systems on when you are at home. If you do not already have a panic button activated on your cellphone, install one so that you can discreetly call for help at the press of a button in an emergency,” he said.
Jackson said the company’s mobile panic app, when installed on your smartphone, pinpoints your precise location – whether you are at the beach, out jogging, or hiking in a park – the moment you activate it in an emergency. “Our state-of-the-art control centre receives the signal and makes contact with you to determine the type of emergency. We can then activate a range of emergency responses, from our own armed response officers in our operational areas, to ambulance services, the SAPS and roadside assistance services.”