This is the moment a South African couple are robbed while live-streaming to their gaming followers.
Online gamer Sterna Lewis, also known as ‘Miss Bandiit’, was playing ‘Call of Duty: Warzone’ when burglars entered her home in Amberfield in the municipality of Centurion in the South African province of Gauteng.
Lewis said she began a livestream for her followers on Twitch at around 8pm on 18th June.
The suspects entered her home at around 11pm and first confronted her boyfriend Mario Engelbrecht, 37, before yanking off her headphones and demanding that she lie on the floor.
Engelbrecht, Lewis, and her two sons, 12 and 9, were tied up while the burglars ransacked their home.
The incident was captured on camera and live-streamed on Twitch. The footage shows three suspects, one of them unmasked and identifiable.
One of Engelbrecht’s friends who lives on the same estate grew concerned when the couple suddenly left the online game without a word.
Other gamers heard the victims saying: “Please do not hurt us, our children, or our dogs.”
Lewis said, if the audio is turned up high, the burglars are heard saying: “Relax, we will not harm them.”
Meanwhile, concerned friends tried contacting the couple without any luck and drove to the house to check on them.
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The friends reportedly heard the robbers ransacking the garage and called the police and the estate’s security team.
Another gamer on Twitch who watched the incident also called a local security company.
By the time officers arrived on the scene, the robbers had fled with smartwatches, three smartphones, two Xbox consoles, laptops. Three PCs and nine monitors, according to the news site TimesLIVE.
Lewis who was understandably distressed by the incident and also lost computer equipment has said that she will take a break from live-streaming for a while, but told her followers she will return soon.
The investigation is ongoing.