Posted on 05/25/2010 7:24:08 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Eileen Mijlof said she had lost count of number of times she was burgled in her South African home.
So when she and her husband, Jelle, decided to move, it was to a custom-designed Y-shaped fortress that the pair claim is impossible to break in to.
Unusually for middle-class South African homes, the property at the foot of Table Mountain does not have burglar bars, alarms, electric fencing or trellis security doors, because the first floor is nearly 50ft above the ground.
The house looks as if it is precariously balanced on top of a secure garage, but the foundation is 20ft deep, and 10ft by 40ft long.
Mrs Mijlof, 52, who is originally from Liverpool, said: "We feel very safe in the house. We lost count of the number of times we got robbed in our previous homes and the hotel we ran.
"They were never violent, but it just got too much, which is why Jelle decided he would build this place."
Mr Mijlof, 75, got the idea to construct the two-storey house after sitting in the grounds of the property.
"I was sitting by the trees and looked up and saw the squirrels running up and down them and the birds singing. I noticed that when the squirrels got to the end of branches, they looked secure because they knew nothing could follow them because they'd both fall off.
"The squirrels and the birds looked so safe and I thought we should fell the same."
He completed the house in 2000, and the couple, who have been married 20 years, are now selling the fortress in the Higgovale suburb to move to the whale-watching town of Hermanus.
The house, which enjoys panoramic views of Cape Town and the ocean beyond, is on the market for about £1.1m.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The house looks as if it is precariously balanced on top of a secure garage, but the foundation is 20ft deep, and 10ft by 40ft long.
The first floor is no more than 20 feet above the ground...doesn’t look too hard to break in to me. Just a couple of 24 foot ladders and go!
If that is 50 feet, then the guy next to the garage ought to join the NBA.
And grilles on those balconies could sure boil some oil. Because they are from L’pool do they have more options in seeking refuge in the UK than than the indigenous Boers?
Wow. Nobody has ever thought of multi-story homes before. Africa is so much more advanced than everyone else.
/sarc
The multi-story home was built by Europeans. So that doesn't count. :-P
The multi-story home was built by Europeans. So that doesn't count. :-P
It may not be totally burglar proof, but the mentality and modus operandi of “burglars” is to take the path of least resistance and go for the easy scores, so they’ve improved their odds of not being broken into.
Easier targets
lol
So many whites are being killed in Africa, mostly farmers, that IMO the only safe place there is the airport and flying out. Sad, because many families have been there for several generations, and it is home, but it’s not safe, and I suspect it is only going to get worse.
Yes, but some Whites are still moving to South Africa. Like this British couple.
While all of that is fantasy, there is some truth to it.
The truth is this: Zombies do not exist, but should the economy collapse you can be certain in a week or so people will be desperate ...the people who did not take appropriate measures to cater for their nutritional, safety and other needs. A family with starving children, or a mother with a sick child, or a group of men out to take from the weak and unprepared, can be as vicious as any celluloid zombies. Some think that being in the suburbs with a gun safe filled with AR-15 variants and mossbergs and what-not makes you safe ...no, it does not. Numbers will overwhelm you. Also, those seeking to come in and take your food, your daughters, your gold will also probably be armed as well. Suburbia is a trap, a death trap. The only way to survive TEOTWAKI (if it ever happens, and there is a likelihood it never will ....or it could be a container filled with weaponized smallpox away) is to be in an area where you have neighbors who are like you (meaning you can have effective collective defence), and where you can have sustainable food supplies (e.g. rural areas), and where you can arguably be better hidden from the (then) ubiquitous gangs of roaming marauders that will inevitably spring up (meaning be in a place that is off the beaten track). However many, including quite a number on FR, believe all you need is several AR-15s and various other guns (e.g. two shotguns, a couple sighted rifles, a rifle with cheap ammo for keeping the kitchen, and maybe 3 handguns) with a couple thousand rounds for each weapon ...well, if you have that and are in the sub-urbs, all it means is you collected those guns for the mobs that will CERTAINLY take you down. Every shot you fire (just like in zombie films) only means that more and more people within earshot know there is someone who has something worth protecting. Before you know it people will rush your house, or shoot at it from outside, or try to smoke you out. You will lose. Many of those people may be your suburbia neighbors even.
Anyways, zombies do not exist. But if the economy was to fail, you'd see a lot of desperate people doing really weird things. A FReeper once posted an experience he had a couple of years back when some computer systems at his local walmart failed (for debit/credit cards), and the ATM machine was not working either, and in 20 minutes people were complaining about people with cash being able to buy. In a very short span of time people can truly generate.
Anyways, that is the end of my attempt to hijack this thread.
:^)
Go back to Left for Dead 2 :)
Lol.
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