So it seems the days of going to Golden Harvest Park, each Sunday morning, to walk with the dogs, are over. This morning I was mugged.
The culprits:
Two black (I really don't care about being politically correct at this moment) males.
The events:
Titan, Asha and I had actually just started out on our walk. We follow a set path each Sunday, and as we were climbing the hill near the dam wall, the culprits walked past us, one at a time and each of them greeted me with a "good morning".
As you get to the dam wall, you have to climb some rocks to continue on the path. It was as we were doing this that the culprits (I'll refrain from calling them the more colourful names that are on my mind) came back. They said something to me, which made me turn around. One was holding a "gun" (I place that in the inverted commas because it looked very fake). The other was holding a garden fork. I told them I had nothing with me, but they pointed at the bag at my waist and demanded my phone. (I carry a very tiny bag with my cellphone, car keys and labello lip balm in it).
Very calmy (my natural reaction in a stressful situation), I walked off the rocks, and tried to run away, but they grabbed me and pinned me to the ground with a hand over my mouth so that I wouldn't scream. Then ripped my bag off me and ran away.
It was then that I screamed, at them to give me my car keys (I don't care about the phone), and then a piercing yell at the top of my lungs to alert anyone in the area. Though doing that didn't help, because no one cares anyway.
Though I wasn't hurt by them, I fell on the loose sand while running down the hill to get help. This is what my legs look like:
I didn't even have scrapes this bad as a child. Anyway, back to the story.
Although no one came running at my screaming, there were a few good samaritans in the park. One guy and his brother tried helping me track them/ my keys down, but they had run off into the koppie which is hugely overgrown. Others drove to the gate to alert the guards, but apparently they got a very disinterested response with a "oh well, it happens all the time here". Another let me use her cellphone to call my ex.
By some miracle, my ex has a set of my house keys - my set were in the locked car. So he was able to get my spare car keys from home.
After dropping the dogs off at their home, I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon driving around. 1) To do a sim swap for my phone - a complete mission when you're not sure how much airtime was left on your phone, or the last dialled numbers. Found out that you can give any five dialled numbers from the last three months. 2) To open a case at the police station - once again, I don't care about the phone, but who knows what issues I'm going to have with regards to the car keys. Guess I'll find out tomorrow, when I start those calls.
Besides very sore legs, I am fine. Just hugely bummed that my favourite weekly activity has now been ruined. And I can't give up "doggie park", because Titan and Asha actually know that we go each Sunday - they don't eat their breakfast, and pace the passage because they're so excited.
Will just have to find a safer place to go. Next week we'll go to Walkhaven again. The entrance fee tends to keep the criminals away.
After that, who knows...
