Shots on Saturday Morning

Yesterday morning as I was uncharacteristically lying in late, we heard about six gunshots, rather close at 6:45. We live in a part of Johannesburg --the "leafy suburbs" of Sandton-- where this is rare, unlike places like, say, Hillbrow or Yeoville. We were up in a flash! From the shared bathroom window I caught a glimpse of an Anchor Security vehicle coming out of the road closure opposite and turning into Kelvin Drive, apparently running into something. When I got to the kitchen to get a better view, it had disappeared. I called 10111 after Judith had found it engaged, and reported the shots. Then dressed and went opposite, where a knot of security staff had gathered. As I was listening to them, three of my Reservist colleagues who were on duty, pulled up just before 07:00, having hot-footed it across town from Randburg where they had been handling an incident that the regular Randburg Police were too lazy to do themselves. It transpired that two men had been followed home from O R Tambo International Airport and robbed at gunpoint in their driveway maybe 30 m inside the boomed-off area. The unarmed boom guard had been held up by the robbers and hidden away while pressing his panic button. As the robbers left, the response vehicle arrived, fired shots at the freeing robbers as they were shot at, and then crashed into the Armco barrier as they tried to pursue them. No-one was injured and all the bullets appeared to have missed. The South Africa Police Service (SAPS) a while ago denied that there is a syndicate that follows people home from the airport (probably after getting inside information from their customs declaration form).