A six-year-old calmly told his dad, while watching water polo, that an armed robbery was taking place a few metres behind them.
|||Durban - A six-year-old calmly told his dad, while watching water polo, that an armed robbery was taking place a few metres behind them on Friday.
When he told his dad a man was being robbed at Durban High School, the father replied, “Yes, my boy, that’s what they do in water polo,” thinking he was referring to the game.
“But they’ve got guns,” the boy said.
“No, I don’t think so,” his father replied.
“There, behind you,” his son insisted.
“At that stage I turned around and I saw two guys running out of the school gate with AK47s, pulling balaclavas from their faces and jumping into a car,” said the father, who asked that neither of them be identified for fear of reprisals.
On a terrace below, a water polo event involving 16 schools went on regardless, with few people aware of what had happened in the car park next to the school’s science and maths block which is being refurbished.
An employee of Betts Construction, which is doing the work, was held up when he called at the site to deliver the fortnightly wages to casual labour.
“They also asked where is your gun? Where is your gun? Underneath the seat?’” said the employee, who also did not want to be named.
The robbers took his cellphone and R116 000.
Site manager Don Kelly said he and his wife were having lunch at a restaurant 100m away. “I received a call from (an employee) saying get here quickly’,” he said.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Thulani Zwane said a case of armed robbery had been opened at the Berea police station. There had been no arrests and there were no injuries. He said the getaway vehicle was a Renault.
The boy’s mother described the robbers as “brazen”.
The boy himself, who appeared unfazed by the ordeal, said one day he would like to be a pilot.
“Or a vet or a doctor. I don’t yet know which one to choose.”
Independent on Saturday