Pensioner Liz van Quickelberge thought it was the end when she stumbled upon an intruder in her bedroom.
|||Durban - A Pinetown pensioner helped a robber on the run dress up as a woman, in her clothes, and promised she would help him escape by driving him out of her retirement village. But then she delivered into the hands of the police hunting him.
Liz van Quickelberge, 78, stumbled on the man in her bedroom at the Sandown Retirement Village where he was hiding from the police after robbing a Kloof man on Sunday.
The police knew where he was and had surrounded the retirement village, sending police dogs after him, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, Van Quickelberge, who lives alone, was about to sit down to lunch when she heard a door close in her bedroom.
At first she thought it was the wind or one of the monkeys that roam the leafy retirement village.
“But when I reached my bedroom there was a man, dressed in my clothes,” she said.
He was holding a heavy glass vase which, Van Quickelberge thought, he planned to use to hit her over the head.
“I told him to give me the vase and to get out of my clothes,” she said, and the shocked intruder did as he was told.
But then he grabbed Van Quickelberge and began throttling her.
“I could feel the pressure growing in my head… I don’t know where I found the strength, but I pulled my knees up and kicked him off me,” she said. Then she put her hands up.
“I told him to stop, that he wouldn’t get anywhere by killing me,” she said, “And, in very broken English, he told me he was hiding.”
Van Quickelberge then suggested she help him – provided he did not hurt her.
The intruder went to the kitchen, where he found some chocolate.
“He came back to the bedroom, handed me some of the chocolate and told me to eat it,” said Van Quickelberge. “That was when I realised I had won his trust.”
The two agreed she would drive him out of the retirement village.
But, she agreed, he had to have a disguise. He should dress up as an old person and they would slip out as an odd couple. He rummaged through Van Quickelberge’s wardrobe, found an olive and cream pants suit and put it on. Van Quickelberge didn’t complain this time.
“I made that suit myself,” she said. “I was so proud of it and I only wore it once.”
The two made their way to Van Quickelberge’s car and, with her in the driver’s seat, casually left the retirement village.
Seconds after they had passed through the gate they came upon a police car with three officers inside. The policemen jumped out to stop them.
“They started banging on my car window but the man told me to go and, as I sped up, the officers started chasing us.”
When the two found themselves approaching more police cars, the man yelled at Van Quickelberge to “go through them”.
But instead she hit the brakes.
The police surrounded the car and took the suspect into custody.
“I was shaking terribly,” she said. “But the police were wonderful, they put their arms around me and told me how brave I was.”
Van Quickelberge was suffering from a sore throat on Monday but was in good spirits.
She said that the intruder had taken jewellery and cash, most of which the police had recovered.
Police spokesman Thulani Zwane said that a case of house robbery had been opened and the arrested man would appear in court on Tuesday.
The Mercury
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