Just Robbed at Gun point

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The Boss

The Boss

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Just heard from my parents in Africa that they were robbed some 2 hours ago (in Africa, not here)

Three gunmen were waiting outside the gates to our house and as they approached the house, the men came out of the grass verges and attacked.. All are ok, no physical harm, car was taken, but my uncle was abducted, tied up and put in the back of the car, and driven to part of the jungle outside Lusaka, thrown out of the car and they sped off with the car.

Lucky excape for him, as he had a similar situation 2 years back with our Toyota Hilux, which they that time drove off with my Cousin, who was very young, and he was thrown out of the car some moments later.

Ah what is this world coming too... if a turn for the worse was to have occurred...

Still in shock....
 
Sorry to hear that...............did they have a motive or was it the car that they wanted?
You must be quite shocked to hear that news.
 
Its always shocking, yes all are ok, most important!

Just.... it is a re-occurring event, even my partners family are based over in Kenya, and the same thing happened to them recently...

Thank you for your comments.

Its like, we have security guards at the gates who we have given guns too, im just lost for words as to what they were doing... will deal with it in the morning, as they are all resting now....

CCTV solution was a thought, but it makes no difference lol

as an example of how crap our security is there, we have hub caps on the wheels as alloys would just not survive the pot holes.

We parked 4 of our cars outside our factory with 2 security peeps watching the vehicles, when my parents and uncles came out, all the hub caps were stolen, and when we asked the security guys what happened, they didnt have a clue...

I mean come on!!!!
 
I'm sorry to hear this! I have a friend who is employed in SA as a body guard, he has been in so many incidents involving attempted car jackings and abductions, that he said he was in less danger when he served with me in the Parachute regiment ( We got into some scrapes I can tell you). He has personally shot and killed 3 people that were up to no good.!
hope your family are OK and can get back to some normality. Having guns pointed at you is a disturbing thing to go through, even though you have one too.
 
thank you, yes its shocking when ever something like this happenes.

yes SA is notorious of many events, its more publicized over in SA, but Zambia media rarely puts emphasis on it. Main media advertising and reporting at mo is on HIV, flour (Mili mili) shortage and economical development, but when you look at the problems within the CBD, its often pushed aside!

killing anyone is a tough aspect to any life, i cant imagine it, but some one trained to do so, clearly has alot to deal with emotionally and psychologically..

lets just pray for a better tomorrow eh!
 
The Boss said:
thank you, yes its shocking when ever something like this happenes.

yes SA is notorious of many events, its more publicized over in SA, but Zambia media rarely puts emphasis on it. Main media advertising and reporting at mo is on HIV, flour (Mili mili) shortage and economical development, but when you look at the problems within the CBD, its often pushed aside!

killing anyone is a tough aspect to any life, i cant imagine it, but some one trained to do so, clearly has alot to deal with emotionally and psychologically..

lets just pray for a better tomorrow eh!
Click to expand...
Absolutely!
 
+1.
 
Cases like this bring you up short. I have a house in Pretoria, and have worked there. I have also worked in Kampala, Lusaka, Swaziland, Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Republic of Georgia. I have been in India, Thailand, Taiwan, Dubai and all over Europe.

I have only been personally robbed once, in Durban, at knife point, and in broad daylight in the centre of town. In general I do not feel at high risk, and I suppose the low insurance premiums support that. (500SE fully comp any driver costs ZAR 200 per month, about £15.) I have had 4 break ins, apparently down to a security guard employed by my armed response people, all in 12 months. Otherwise the house has not been broken into in 15 years or so.

You do have to take precautions however: armed response, alarm systems with beams, secure fencing, internal 'eyes': it sometimes feels like a prison. But such things are not unknown in the UK. I have friends in SA who pack pistols, and sleep with one close by. Others, myself included, do not.

I do sometimes go out in the evening in SA, and am sometimes out late after visiting friends. You do have to be careful though. However there are late night film shows ending around midnight, so not everyone is fearful.

The white population tends to have something of a siege mentality, and there is much talk of break ins and hi-jacking. It is difficult to keep a sense of proportion. But again, household insurance premia are low compared to the UK in my experience, which is some sort of dispassionate indicator.

There are places in the UK where I would not walk around at night. If you go out clubbing until the early hours you are at risk in most places.

Some places like Kampala seemed reasonably safe, as did Lusaka if you did not go out late at night. Cape Town was fine in the tourist areas, Durban not! But, would you go up a dark back alley in the centre of say Manchester at midnight? Or Brixton?

In Boss's case the repetition and the normally safe circumstances are worrying, and the nearby but totally ineffectual guards are particularly so. But at least there seems to have been little serious violence: in SA all too often mindless violence would have occurred: shootings are not uncommon. Rape can accompany break ins, particularly nasty in the context of AIDS.

Security guards are far more numerous and visible in all these places, and their being armed is routine, unlike the UK. but the only place where I have had a gun pointed at me was in the UK, at the airport where I worked! (It was when I entered a sensitive area in the course of my duties, and was precautionary rather than threatening.) However a knife held to your stomach with intent is in my direct experience just as frightening. In some places (Uganda) the rifles seems more likely to kill the bearer as they were filthy.

Whilst the white population of SA often feel victimised, the most wide spread sufferers are the black people themselves. I have seen hapless domestics attacked in the street on the way home from church (in wealthy suburbs similar to Hale or Wilmslow). My own maid lives in, but has a RDP home in a township, where she has had a break in and two cases of water theft by neighbours: one was doing building work, and another running a car wash! We are not talking mega theft here: water bills up from R50 to R300 as an example. But it has to be related to income, and is part of a pattern that makes life that much more miserable for the masses. She has a good cheap train service available, but dares not use it for fear of robbery or worse. It is fair to say that the biggest threat she fears is black on black on the daily basis.

Security personnel are low paid, which might be thought of as asking for trouble. But I have had considerable experience of corruption, and it is not that simple. What threat does an irate but responsible employer pose to a security guard deployed near the threatened area, compared to an armed criminal attacking his master's property? One will not kill him: the other may well do so. Can you buy loyalty?

In one country we had advised the head of Customs to increase pay as part of an anti corruption initiative. He was aggrieved to find when I later rolled up and found a major corruption problem, but the fact of the matter was that the corruption brought in something like 5 times their income, which was not matchable from public funds. Then too, one slip and you are locked in: the corrupters are skilled at presenting their offer so as to appear not corrupt. So yes you can buy loyalty, if you have enough money. The bent ones have more of that!

But I digress. I have much sympathy with Boss's situation: he must be very concerned for his family, and feel powerless to do much about it. It must be difficult for his family out there too, but at least they can choose where they live (economic imperatives apart of course). They have the ongoing situation to cope with too, and more immediately the upset (I refuse to use the trauma word), the feeling of violation, and the fear of recurrence to cope with. In the recovery phase they will need to assess their situation more dispassionately than possible at present.

That can be difficult as facts are hard to obtain. It is difficult to compare countries, the UK in particular, because crime statistics are unreliable here. (I have direct experience of that when my wife was attacked by intruders at school, and the police initially refused to record the case, perhaps influenced by the clear up rate targets.)

These are indeed difficult and complex times.

I do hope Boss and his family come to terms with their situation without too much stress, and that they are able to reach a measured assessment of their situation in due course.
 
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Glad to hear they got through it un-harmed. Where in Africa was this ?
 
Sorry to read this, Boss.
Glad to hear that no-one is hurt.

I read about these things and thank my lucky stars that I don't have to live with this type of worry all the time.
For a long time, I have held the view that it ought to be compulsory for everyone to spend at least a few weeks in a third-world country.
It's not easy to take out our first-world eyes and put in a set of third-world eyes and see it how it is.
 
johnsco said:
Sorry to read this, Boss.
Glad to hear that no-one is hurt.

I read about these things and thank my lucky stars that I don't have to live with this type of worry all the time.
For a long time, I have held the view that it ought to be compulsory for everyone to spend at least a few weeks in a third-world country.
It's not easy to take out our first-world eyes and put in a set of third-world eyes and see it how it is.
Click to expand...
I have spent months in Third word countries! AND I was getting shot at... Does that count?


Boss, how are your parents now?
 
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Hi Piper, they are fine.

shaken but not stirred...

i guess we are all just glad luck is on our side.. when in situations such as this, u cant imagine whats going in through the minds of the gunmen..

they just might not be logical or balanced.. so they might shoot when they actually didnt intend to, out of just agression or a spasm in their finger.

Bottom line, no one was hurt that is all that matters! :)
 
piper alpha said:
I have spent months in Third word countries! AND I was getting shot at... Does that count?
Click to expand...

That counts double !! (At least)
 
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