Farm incident

Fiona and Robert Hobson feel lucky to be alive this week. Last Thursday afternoon they were held up at gunpoint on their farm Swartriviersdrift in the Kliplaat area by three young coloured men, and spent three and a half hours tied up while the men ransacked their house.

On the morning of the attack, two young coloured men had come to the farm ostensibly looking for work, to be told there was none. At 4pm that afternoon the two men, with an accomplice, returned, armed with a small gun and knives, and entered the farm house. Robert was then tied up with rope that the men had brought with them, and left lying on his bed, while Fiona was ordered to open the safe. She was then bound up tightly with telephone cord, and the couple had pillowcases placed over their heads so that they could not see. One man stayed on guard with them all the time, and the other two proceeded to search the house for valuables.

According to Fiona Hobson, the men were initially very tense and jittery, and she was quite convinced that they would not come out of the afternoon alive. The Hobsons at first tried to encourage the men to leave quickly, but then realized that they were waiting until it was dark to flee. They then tried to calm the attackers by talking quietly to them, and prayed aloud for help and guidance. This approach seems to have worked, and Fiona said that she felt very grateful that the men had not actually harmed them, and appeared to in fact to be merciful. “My husband, who has a bad back, was getting very uncomfortable lying on his side” she said. “Instead of ignoring him or hurting him further, the men helped him to turn onto his other side”. She commented that the men appeared to be well-educated, and although they spoke Afrikaans amongst themselves, they talked to the Hobsons in fluent English. When she asked them why they were ruining their lives with crime, they gave the common excuse of not being able to get jobs, and being hungry.

Fiona was also extremely thankful that their children are grown up, and that there were no little children at home to be traumatized by the event. “This is what we dreaded all the years that our children were growing up on the farm, that they would be subjected to a terrible experience like this” she confided. “This was truly a miracle, that we are unharmed.  ” The Advertiser was very impressed with Fiona’s calmness, and she seemed very much in control, despite their horrific ordeal.

On Friday the Hobsons’ bakkie was found abandoned near the old quarry, just outside Aberdeen. It would seem as though the men had fled in a hurry, as nearly all the stolen goods were found, still in the bakkie. The couple’s gun, which was taken from their safe, was found on the road next to the bakkie. Their cameras, laptop and cash were recovered, but not their cellphones.

The Hobsons were full of praise for the police. “On Thursday night the police poured in from all over – they were awesome” commented Fiona. “They have worked non-stop, and nothing has been too much trouble.” Apparently on Friday a farm worker had reported two men snooping around a neighbouring farm house (which is unoccupied), and the police arrived very quickly to arrest them – however these were older men, and not those involved in the robbery at the Hobsons’ house. They were very impressed with the police’s vigilance and quick reaction to this possible threat.