Agent and seller set up for robbery

“He pointed a gun to my head, pressed my face to the floor and tied up my feet and hands with box tape.”

This is what estate agent Sugnet Roets said happened to her and a homeowner before they were robbed at gunpoint in Hutten Heights in Newcastle recently.

“I was contacted by the purchaser who told me she was interested in buying a sale house in Hutten Heights,” she explained.

Roets said the buyer insisted on paying cash.

“She let me know the next day that she wanted her mother to view the house before making the purchase.”

Roets admitted that she missed a red flag and that the buyer’s weak excuses should have alerted her.

The purchaser also provided an unrecognisable copy of her identity document.

“When I asked her to forward me her personal documents, her ID was fairly dark when I received it on e-mail from her.

“She said she was in the process of getting a new one at the department of home affairs.”

The second red flag was that the buyer constantly badgered her regarding the documents needed to start the sale process.

On the day of the robbery, the homeowner called Roets to say the buyer was at the house and requested that she also be there.

“It was strange because the purchaser had not made prior arrangements with me to go to the house.”

Roets said when she arrived she was greeted by the friendly face of the buyer and that she was not suspicious.

“I became aware of what was happening when I saw the homeowners’ sister tied up and lying on the floor.”

A gun was pointed at Roets’ face and both she and the homeowner were bound by their hands and feet with packaging tape by two men.

The “buyer” stood by and watched calmly. “There were two of them [perpetrators]; one put tape over my mouth. The ‘buyer’ was casual about the whole thing. She was drinking water from a bottle watching.”

The men then ransacked the house and stole the three women’s cellphones and jewellery. – Caxton News Service

She (the fake buyer) was very casual about the whole thing. Sugnet Roets Estate agent in Newcastle