Knifepoint Robbery in Johannesburg CBD
It finally happened… After 8 months of living in South Africa, we were robbed in Johannesburg.
Why “finally.?” Well, we were in downtown Joburg, also known locally as “CBD,” (central business district). Joburg is known for its high crime rates (carjackings, robberies…) and CBD has some of the worst crime rates in the country. We knew we would be robbed at one point during our time in Joburg.
However, being the explorers we are, we’ve walked around CBD a couple of times to go fabric shopping, to see an Ethiopian market, and to move between spots. The CBD area is also home to some cool areas that should be walkable because they are 15-ish minutes away from each other. Generally, it doesn’t make sense to uber for a 2-minute car ride. But lesson learned.
We were robbed at point “c” on the map
An attempt at Sunday Funday
Our plan for the day was to check out the new murals and street art in Newtown Junction. Newtown is undergoing street art revival to beautify the neighborhood. From there we planned to walk to the Rand Club and then onwards to Maboneng for an early dinner and drinks.
As usual, when heading into CBD we took an uber. Ubers are cheap. and it’s more likely for a car to get stolen or carjacked downtown.
Newtown art adventures
We got dropped off at Newtown mall and wandered around.
The last time we were here, there was a pop-up art gallery. However, it wasn’t operating. Instead, I took some pics of art along the walls, and then we walked to Museum Africa.
I saw this recently on insta and wanted to check it out!
The museum has a rainbow-colored staircase that I got some pics with (thanks to my forever photographer, Wilhelm). Piano keys were also recently painted on the ground in front of the museum. Very cool!
Unfortunately, I hadn’t uploaded my photos while we were on the walk (as I wait for Wi-Fi) and I only put a couple up on Instagram before we were robbed… So just imagine it all!
After Newtown, we walked towards Mad Giant Brewery. Though the brewery was closed, we wanted to check out the space. Along the way, we found another recent street art addition.
On the left: these cool heads were recently repainted and spruced up. They line Newtown and go almost all the way to Mad Giant.
A walk around Mad Giant and Chambers bar
Near Mad Giant, we stopped at a bar to get a drink. Chambers is across from the Nelson Mandela boxing statue on Fox street and the Johannesburg Central Magistrate’s Court.
It was pretty empty but a DJ was mixing inside and we were attracted to the outdoor space that had a cool African map painted on the building. (RIP to those cool photos, we will have to go back…). While hanging out, a man came up to Wilhelm asking him to play pool. They played a round of pool while I texted.
Look at our innocent, happy faces…
Pre getting robbed in Johannesburg CBD
This is when we should have taken an uber to Maboneng, rather than walk between Chambers and Maboneng… However, it’s hard to think of these things in hindsight. Who knew we were going to be robbed in Johannesburg.
We walked 15 minutes from Chamber to Rand Club and then another 30 minutes to Maboneng. We’ve walked this path before as the Rand Club is near Gandhi Square, where one of our favorite restaurants is located, Town Treasure (recently rebranded from Thunder Walker).
The walk between Rand Club and Maboneng is a high crime area, on Commissioner Street. We’ve done this walk 3 or so times before, but not on Commissioner St. Rather, we would walk 1 block south on Fox street. However, there is a building that I really like (a pink and brick apartment complex). We planned to see it from the front on Commissioner street (rather than the back on Fox St).
The knifepoint robbery in action
Attempt #1
The walk was going totally fine. We had just seen the beginning of the building I wanted to look at, just 400 meters away from us when 5 (or 6) men surrounded us around 4:30 pm (or 5 pm?).
Wilhelm was about to grab me to pull me closer as it seemed like they were just going fast and wanted to pass us. I turned around.
That’s when a man came between us and 2 men came in front of me with a knife. The man with the knife pointed it at me while another was trying to pull my purse off me. I held onto the handles, twisted around (spraining my ankle in the process).
We entered a tug of war.
The other men didn’t get involved in the tugging match, I think, except to try to push me away… The memory is a little foggy… Two men were on Wilhelm, pushing him to try to get to his phone. After a minute or so, they left us and we still had our phones and my purse.
Unsure about what was going to happen next, we kept walking quickly, we were so close to Maboneng…
Wilhelm said, what if they come again? I was sure that they just tried and failed. People are still around… Why would they do it again?
I was wrong.
Attempt #2 and Success
The second attack was more aggressive. They separated us again and were pulling at my purse. I wasn’t letting go. I told them “my mom bought me this purse, I need this purse… what do you want? I’ll open the purse.” So they stopped and held me instead.
One held my wrist and took off my watch. I was wearing my engagement ring but I had the ring swirled around so it just looked like a metal band. In the scuffle, they didn’t notice anything. (Another lucky thing). The other was looking around, holding the knife.
When I unzipped the purse, they snatched the phone. I went for the wallet and took out my cardholder and my cash. The only loose card I had was my grocery Woolworths card and I handed it to them with the money. They left the cards (including my license, thank goodness) and they ran off from me. Later when we got home I realized they also took my wallet, but it was empty.
I had tunnel vision while all this was happening, so I didn’t see Wilhelm. He was in the middle of the street with two men telling him they were going to stab him. They took his phone, and, in the process, his phone case came unattached. They assumed that meant there was another phone, so they continued to manhandle him until they got out the case. The robbers realized it was just the case, so they left it with him. They also took out his wallet and took only the cash… putting his wallet into his back pocket.
Walking fast to Jewel City and Maboneng
After that they had nothing really else they wanted from us and we walked fast to Maboneng. Because they hadn’t taken our cards, we were able to take out cash at an ATM (once we got in the safe area of Jewel City).
We continued to Home of the Bean, a cafe in Maboneng where we were greeted by the owner. As we entered, he asked how we were, I was like: we were robbed in Johannesburg CBD, we have cash but can’t get a cab… can you call us a cab, please?
He was so nice and invited us to sit down while immediately ordering us a cab. I really just wanted to get home and be in our own space. Plus, we needed to wipe our phone remotely…
The owner walked with us to the cab, which was super nice.
Home sweet home
Those 10 minutes to get home felt really long. Our phones were still on and we were able to track them. They were last seen near a fabric shop we’ve been to. LOL. I will not be going to that location again. I did some googling to see if I could remotely upload the pictures that weren’t yet backed up from my phone, but no luck. After a couple of google searches, we both remotely wiped our phones. Hopefully, it worked…
Not quite knowing what to do, we sat on the couch and drank tea. Soon enough we realized that we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. We ordered in Coalition Pizza. This Joburg pizza spot has a couple of locations. One is just 2km from us, but we did uber eats. Pizza is comfort food, right?
And so, pizza and the latest Brooklyn 99 episodes became our night plans.
The day after
Luckily both Wilhelm and I are okay. Getting robbed in Johannesburg CBD kind of doesn’t feel real to me, even when it was happening. Hard to explain…
Sleep came and went during the night. My strategy was to stay up reading until my eyelids were closing so I wouldn’t think about it.
My foot is sprained and my knee is bruised and scraped… But I’m not sure how that happened. Luckily the knife scrape is not deep. Wilhelm’s shirt was ripped and the straps of my purse are ripped too. The purse will still be able to be used—ha.
New phones
We went to our service provider MTN to perform a sim swap of our numbers—it took a while but was easy enough. Ironically, the first time we went to MTN to get our numbers a man was frantically yelling at MTN staff that he was robbed at gunpoint and they took his phone… He was hoping for a replacement phone that MTN wasn’t keen on giving him.
MTN (as all service providers) are so interesting to deal with. Like we said we were robbed and didn’t have phones… But then they were asking us to insert new sims in our phones… What phones?… Why don’t you have a phone?” The experience was a tiny bit frustrating, but we remained calm cats. Our phone numbers will stay the same and they should be active tomorrow.
Insurance
Before we moved to Johannesburg, I had a nightmare that we left our imaginary (ground level) house in Joburg to pick someone up for the airport and we were robbed of everything inside while we were away. As soon as we secured our (second story) apartment, I got insurance for literally everything we brought and everything we bought. I was super paranoid. (Again) Luckily our phone, watch, and cash are insured. Dealing with insurance may be another hell but it’ll be something I hope.
Police
When we were first attacked, I didn’t even think of calling the police. I just wanted to get out of there (and definitely not get out our phones). Thinking back, we should have just run all the way to Maboneng… But if the robbers were really motivated then that could have made them more aggressive… Hard to say…
Today, we planned to go to the police station in Rosebank (our neighborhood) to file a report (mostly for insurance). However, Wilhelm was told there was a special unit for diplomats and that these officers would come to our home to take our statement and file the report.
Works for me. It’s a possibility that the Rosebank station will request us to go to the nearest station to where we were robbed to make our statement. No way am I going to do that.
Unfortunately, the police couldn’t manage to find our apartment… Maybe they don’t have access to google maps??? We didn’t have that much confidence in them anyway. The main goal is just to file a report for insurance. They are supposed to come tomorrow…
Fight or Flight
Both Wilhelm and I had the same reaction each time we were attacked. We both fought until the robbers overpowered us. This, of course, is not the right reaction to someone who has a knife pointed at you. We should have just given up and let them take what they wanted.
Next time?
Well, for starters there won’t be a next time for walking on Commissioner Street. I’m going to be more (and consistently paranoid) so I don’t get robbed in Johannesburg.
I would love to go back to Newtown, Mad Giant and Chambers bar, and Maboneng, but we will plan to uber between the locations…
The first couple of times we did this walk, we only would take one phone and one bank card. I usually wear a jacket that has internal pockets instead of taking a purse. But it was hot out. I opted for a purse instead of the jacket and put in my wallet, water bottle, sunnies, and keys (house and car…)
Basically, we got comfortable thinking that since nothing had happened to us, there was no need for the extra precautions we used to take.
Wrong.
This was definitely a crime of opportunity: two white people in CBD that probably have iPhones. My phone is probably 4 years old and Wilhelm’s had a cracked screen. I think they will be lucky to get $40 out of the phones. Plus, we barely had any cash with us. But how would anyone know that?