Three youths armed with knives rob sisters in Red Hill

Duo suffer ‘scary’ attack as bags, necklace taken, but car keys returned at popular jogging spot

AN EVENING run turned into a “rattling” stand-off after two joggers were robbed at knifepoint in Red Hill. Sandy Trope, 49, and her sister, who did not wish to be named, had been running along the trails that wind through the mountain pass, near Simon’s Town, at about 6pm on Wednesday.

It’s something the pair have been doing for the past three years and it’s a popular spot for joggers, mountain bikers and swimmers.

Trope said she “noticed these three young guys sitting along the trail, they didn’t seem like they belonged”.

The pair had a dip in the Kleinplaas dam to cool down. As she swam she noticed the trio of men had disappeared. “I thought that was a good thing.” But as Trope and her sister left the dam to return to the parking lot, the men jumped from a bush.

The cigarettes they had been smoking earlier had been swopped for long knives which they pointed in Trope’s face. She “kind of lost sense of where her sister was”.

“It was very scary, they were right there, standing there with these really wickedlooking knives.

“The way they were waving them around, I thought in that moment I might die here, they might stab me.”

But when she quickly handed over her bags and her necklace, the trio seem satisfied. They took her sister’s car keys, the only possession she had brought with her, and then turned to run towards Ocean View.

“Ha, this is almost comical, but my sister shouted at them to give back her car keys… One of the guys turned around and gave them back to her.”

The pair ran to her sister’s car and alerted authorities.

Trope said she was shaken. She never expected to be robbed along Red Hill’s scenic hiking paths. “If I ever go back it will be in a big group.” SANParks spokeswoman Merle Collins said members of the organisation were set to meet with Trope and her sister tomorrow to discuss what had happened and see if they could bolster security along the hiking path.

Police confirmed that the incident took place at about 6pm.

But Trope said they were only filling out an official police report at the Simon’s Town Police Station last night.

Last year, a man was stabbed to death while hiking along the Trappieskop Trail in Kalk Bay. Builder Henri La Cour, 72, and a woman in her forties were confronted by a robber who attacked the pair and escaped with several stolen items.

THE CIGARETTES THEY HAD BEEN SMOKING EARLIER HAD BEEN SWOPPED FOR LONG KNIVES WHICH THEY POINTED IN HER FACE