An assault and attempted hijacking in a Parklands complex has prompted its body corporate to beef up security.
In the early hours of Tuesday February 5, Colleen van Rensburg and her five-year old son were preparing to leave their home in Wood Villas when she was assaulted by a man who had jumped the security gate.
Her son was strapped in his car seat, and Ms Van Rensburg was packing her belongings into the car when she was approached from behind.
“I didn’t hear exactly what he said, but he said something about ‘jou kind’. I started screaming extremely loud for someone to help me,” said Ms Van Rensburg.
The man got into the driver’s seat and started looking for the keys to the vehicle, which he happened to be sitting on.
Ms Van Rensburg pulled him out of the car.
“I don’t think he expected me to pull him out of the car. He started hitting me, but all I kept thinking is I need to be the barrier between him and my son.”
She was punched twice in the nose and once in the left eye.
Blood started gushing with the second blow to the nose.
All the while her son was screaming in the back seat.
The man fled with her son’s school bag.
Ms Van Rensburg said there was another man with her attacker but he had stood at a distance throughout the harrowing encounter.
“I continued to scream for help. I was cupping my hands under my nose because there was so much blood,” she said.
Cases of attempted hijacking, assault and theft have been opened at the Table View police station.
Wood Villas trustee Che Paulse said the incident was a first of its kind at the complex and they would consider posting security patrols both inside and outside the complex.
“We always knew the gate and windows would be vulnerable spots. They bent the top of the gate wider to jimmy themselves in,” said Mr Paulse.
Ms Van Rensburg said she and her son were getting counselling to help with the trauma of the attack.
