Tyler Du Plessis, a grade 8 student from Ferdinand Postma Hoërskool, had an immense fright after experiencing wat seems to be a botched attempt to rob him from his mobile phone, whilst walking from school.
The incident that took place in Retief street, between Buskus and Govan Mbeki, clearly shook Tyler and he is now afraid to walk from school. Tyler says as he walked on the road a man approached him, from where they seem to stay under the trees next to the Mooiriver, the man then asked him for the time, to which Tyler replied he did not have his phone with him, and he continued walking.
Tyler says the next moment he felt a shove from behind and fell to the ground, and it seems the man tried to grab his stuff in his schoolbag. He feared the man had a knife as the man reached for his pocket, and Tyler felt he went cold from fear.
Another man in the vicinity, that also came from where the assailant appeared, assisted Tyler and wrestled with the assailant, after which a motorist also assisted and called CBS Security, the motorist then took Tyler to his dad at work.
Speaking to his dad, Robert Du Plessis, Robert indicated that he feels "violated" and now fears for his son especially as it is not always possible to fetch Tyler from school, he also indicated that he thought nothing of it to have Tyler walk from school in the afternoon as Potchefstroom seemed rather safe in this regard, with many schoolchildren still walking and cycling from home.
Tyler reported the incident as well to his school, which indicated to Tyler that they will during assembly warn the children to be vigilant. Tyler has some muscle aches on his back from the incident otherwise he is unharmed, he also expressed gratitude to the people that helped him, and feels regret for not having thanked them properly after the incident, yet he was shaken and did not think about this at the time.
Parents and children are advised to take note of the incident, and also the community at large must question the fact that along the Mooiriver there seems to be more instances of people seemingly setting up places to stay, bath and in many instances getting up to mischief, this is also a factor that could lead to broken window syndrome if left without any intervention.
