2:20pm Sunday 13th March 2011
A Pembrokeshire man says he thought his “number was up” after he was shot during a bungled robbery while visiting his wife’s family in South Africa.
Darren Prinsloo-Thomas’ life was saved by the brave family dog Jessie who attacked the gun-wielding robber, forcing him to flee.
Darren, aged 39, was on holiday in the Schoemansville area of Hartsbeespoort with his wife Natascha, introducing their 15-month-old son Ruan to his grandparents and great-grandparents.
He recalled the moment at around 11.45pm on February 10th when a man appeared at the door holding a gun.
“A guy appeared at the door and fired a shot at me straight away, which missed completely. I fell to my knees with my hands in the air asked him what he wanted and he said money. I said I’ll get you money, just don’t hurt us.”
Darren got up to get his wallet from the bedroom, where Ruan was screaming having been woken by the gunshot.
At that moment, Jessie, Darren’s mother-in-law’s dog, arrived on the scene and went straight for the robber.
“She was sleeping nearby. Jessie came around the corner of the door and bit him in the thigh and he shot at the dog’s head.”
He continued: “Then he turned, aimed at my head, let a shot off, which I thought had hit my wrist but that was the exit wound. Then the dog attacked him again and he ran off.
“The bullet went in between my little finger and my next finger, went through my hand hit the scaphoid bone in my thumb and exited in my wrist and then grazed me on the leg on the way out.”
“The dog saved our lives, and it’s not the first time she’s attacked people who have broken into the house either,” said Darren.
Jessie, the nine-year-old Boerboel escaped with a graze to the face, but is said to be healing well.
“It was in the aftermath I was thinking I’m losing a lot of blood, is my number up? I lost that much blood it was like something out of a Tarantino film, it was everywhere.”
Darren was patched up in a hospital in nearby Brits, before being taken to hand specialist Dr Imran Mohammed Khan in Pretoria, who Darren described as “out of this world”.
He was released from hospital the next day and doctors here have told him he may require surgery on his thumb.
Although the family could have been flown back earlier, they decided to stay and complete their holiday, returning home on St David’s Day.
“Obviously it did have a bit of a bearing on the holiday, I didn’t spend much time on the beach afterwards,” he said.
On returning he said: “I’ve never been so glad to see Solva in my life.”
Darren and Natascha, who celebrated their sixth anniversary while in South Africa, both work as chefs at Solva’s Cambrian Inn.
He added: “All the doctors I have seen have told me I will feel it when I’m older!”
http://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/8905375.Dog_saves_family_from_gun_robbery_terror/?ref=ms
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