What began as an innocent dare amongst a group of young friends to visit one of Laudium's "scariest sites at night", ended up in terror and tears, when the outing took a wrong turn and the boys were robbed at knifepoint, in pitch darkness.
Speaking to the Laudium Sun, Reevash Singh (23) said that he and a few friends went to the reservoir, located behind Taj Street, last Friday (February 16), following a careless dare made by another friend that very afternoon. According to Reevash, the reservoir is known amongst Laudium youth, as one of the scariest and most dangerous areas at night.
"It was around 8 o' clock when we drove through the gates that lead to the reservoir. They were wide open, as we were told they would be, and admittedly it was very creepy, dark and eerie. When we got to the top of the hill, my three friends and I climbed out of our car to discover that the area did really have a macabre feeling. One of my friends, Kyle Pillay, started recording our surroundings to prove that we did in fact go there at night, which is when three thugs suddenly appeared from the bushes," Reevash exclaimed.
"I knew already we were in trouble. One of the creeps told us to hand over our phones and money or they would kill us. We were scared and in fact one of my friends even cried out of fear. I motioned to my friends for them to comply, as I could make out in the dim light that two of them had what looked to be knives and the third was carrying something that looked like a chopper. One of the criminals went around our group, grabbing our phones and finally when he reached me, I handed my cellphone over, hoping that I would be able to track and recover it from these goons," Reevash continued.
"The criminals then fled down the hill into the darkness, and we quickly scurried to my car and went straight to the police station to report the robbery. I am aware that it is our fault for being somewhere that we were not supposed to be. Nonetheless, all we wanted at that point was to recover our phones that had been stolen. After reporting the case, I quickly set out, with the help of my cousins, to trace my phone before it was wiped," Reevash explained.
Phones recovered
"I was shocked to see the last known location of my phone was in Pretoria West.
These guys were probably going to sell all the phones and we knew we had to move quickly. Using Googles location trace, we were led to a random house in Pretoria West. When we went to the door, a Pakistani national opened and after we explained what happened, and told him we had traced our phones to his house, he eventually relented, saying that he had bought the phones less than 30 minutes ago. While one of my friends waited at the house, the rest of us went to report the stolen phones and with the assistance of the Pretoria West Police, were able to recover all our phones. Pakistani national, Imraan Muhammad, was arrested for possession of the stolen cellphones that very night. I am glad and feel so fortunate that we were able to recover our phones and I will certainly not, in future, be doing any dares,” Reevash concluded.
Speaking to the Laudium Sun, Imraan Muhammad, said that he was truly apologetic for buying the stolen phones and only wanted to cut a little profit so that he could send money home to his family in Pakistan.
The Laudium reservoir, situated behind Taj Street, where Reevash and his friends were robbed.
Reevash Singh and his friends were robbed at the local reservoir but luckily, managed to recover their stolen phones from a house in Pretoria West.
Apologetic: Imraan Muhammad, who bought the stolen phones.