Son in France watches parents get robbed in Jozi while on Skype call

Imagine having a nice chat with your folks, who live overseas, and seeing them get robbed while talking to them on Skype. That’s exactly what happened to Niall Reddy and his family last week. Fortunately, nobody was harmed, but it’s still a harrowing story.

According to News24, Tessa Reddy was chatting to her son, who lives in France, after returning home from celebrating her birthday. While they were talking, burglars had entered their home with guns and her son managed to call for help.

“All I can say is thank God for technology… The situation was actually saved by the fact that I was Skyping,” Tessa Reddy, the man’s mother, told News24.

After celebrating her birthday last Monday, Tessa and her husband Skyped with their son Naill in Paris. According to News24, The two had just started their conversation when Tessa heard her husband Govan speaking to someone upstairs.

“Govan said ‘hello’ to one of them when he bumped into them upstairs. He said ‘what are you doing here?’ He didn’t realise who it was. He thought it was our son who lives in Parktown,” said Reddy.

A young man then pulled a gun on Govan and told him to “shut up or we’ll shoot you”.

As the commotion unfolded, Tessa told her son something was wrong.

“The other [robber then] came and held a gun to my face. They put both of us on the floor,” said Reddy.

Throughout their ordeal, the Skype call she had been on had not yet been disconnected. Her son managed to contact another one of his brothers who, in turn, altered the police and local security company.

Police and security arrived within minutes and the two attackers managed to escape through the backdoor with around R10 000 in cash and goods worth R50 000.

Despite being shaken up by the incident, the Reddys were not planning on leaving the area.

“I love Joburg and we will not live caged in. [Crime] happens everywhere and I guess we were not careful enough. Maybe I was a statistic waiting [to happen],” said Reddy.