Beauty queen fights back: South Africa: News: News24

Johannesburg - A former participant in the Miss Africa beauty pageant has chased off four robbers with blood-curdling screams and a prayer.

Amori Dieckmann, 21, who took fourth place in the 2007 Miss Africa beauty pageant, single-handedly gave some "friendly" armed robbers such a fright when she decided to fight back, that they fled.

Dieckmann, a junior draughtsman at Vhumbanani Projects in Sunninghill, Johannesburg and a part-time model, was returning from gym with a friend at about 19:15 on Wednesday. They stopped off at the office, unaware that a robbery was in progress inside.

She waited in the car while her friend quickly ran into the building.

Robbers 'very polite'

Dieckmann said the robbers were very polite and even held open the door for her friend to pass through.

She was chatting to her stepmother on her cellphone when one of the robbers demanded the phone. She refused to give it to him and he grabbed it. That's when she started screaming.

Dieckmann didn't know that the other robbers had tied up her colleagues and her friend inside the building, holding them at gunpoint and robbing them.

A second robber grabbed her by the throat. He throttled her so that she couldn't breathe or scream. She said he told her to shut up if she didn't want to get hurt.

The robbers pulled her from the car and dragged her into the bushes at the parking lot.

At this point she was able to scream and did so at the top of her voice. All the time she was praying out loud: "God, please don't let them do this to me."

They left her behind the bushes and ran away.

One of the robbers wanted to steal her friend's car. He was very surprised when she grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him from the car.

"I was so scared and thought they were going to hurt me. But then I decided to take my life into my own hands.

'Don't give up and be a victim'

"If you know you can fight back, do so, don't give up and be a victim. It felt great to take control. For the first time in my life I stood my ground," Dieckmann said.

Beauty queen fights back: South Africa: News: News24

Blogged with the Flock Browser