Elderly attacked in Pacaltsdorp: Retired reverend recalls brutal attack

Update

GEORGE NEWS - “As he gave me back my car key, I realised - this is it, this is my gap. It was only by the grace of God.” For the 84-year-old retired reverend, Dr Louis Ronald Petersen, those few seconds meant the difference between life and death.

Bruised and bloodied after being attacked in his own garage, Petersen clung to the sliver of hope that he might still escape. And he did.

But the memory of that Wednesday afternoon, 17 September, in Disa Street, Pacaltsdorp, will never leave him.

When George Herald visited Petersen at his home on Tuesday 23 September, he was still nursing visible bruises to his face and arms. “I had just come back from town and noticed two young men sitting on the concrete bench across the road. I thought nothing of it. People often sit there; it’s a public space, after all,” he said.

But as soon as he pulled into his garage, the day took a terrifying turn.

“The next thing I knew, one of them ripped open my car door and started beating me while pushing a firearm into my ribcage,” Petersen recalled. “At the time I thought it was real and that he was going to kill me. Only afterwards did I realise it was an imitation.”

Pinned inside his vehicle, Petersen endured a flurry of blows before being forced into his house through the back door. His attacker demanded money - specifically R780.

“As many times as he asked, as many times I told him I had no cash in the house,” Petersen said.

The intruder ransacked cupboards and searched rooms. He armed himself with a butcher’s knife from the kitchen, threatening to kill Petersen if he raised the alarm. Miraculously, Petersen’s wife slept through the entire ordeal, unaware of the danger unfolding in their home.

The attacker made off with Petersen’s cellphone, bank cards, laptop speakers and cameras, among other items, stuffed into a large black plastic bag.

Then came an order that proved to be his undoing. He demanded that Petersen drive him home.

“Throughout the ordeal I prayed to God to give me a way out. At the car, he told me to open the boot, but I said I needed the key. He gave it to me. That’s when I realised this was my chance. God answered my prayer. I jumped into the car, locked the doors and started reversing while he was shouting at me. I drove straight to my neighbours to raise the alarm.”

By the time Petersen returned with help, the attacker and the stolen goods were gone.

Though deeply shaken, Petersen is thankful he survived. “I used to live here in peace. Now I find myself looking over my shoulder all the time,” he admitted quietly.

Community steps in

In the days that followed, the Pacaltsdorp CPF and the Pacaltsdorp Men’s Group tracked down and apprehended one suspect at his home in New Dawn Park and handed him over to the police. The police arrested another one later.

Although one suspect was released due to insufficient evidence, the 35-year-old Ricardo Prins appeared in the George Magistrate’s Court this week on charges of assault and robbery. He is due back in the dock for his bail application later today.

Petersen says although the police came out to his house in good time after the incident last week, he is disappointed that the case against one of the suspects wasn’t enrolled in court. “Apparently, they didn’t have any statements to link him to the crime,” says Petersen.

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