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One of the sad realities of enjoying Cape Town’s many scenic walks is that we are trained to remain hypervigilant regarding crime.

That doesn’t stop it from happening, but we generally have an innate gut instinct to sniff out danger.

American Eric Czuleger says he ignored his gut instinct when walking on Signal Hill this past weekend, and he ended up being the victim of a knife attack with a rather bizarre ending.

Czuleger shared his story on the Hiking Cape Town Facebook page:

Nothing about that seems too odd, but IOL uncovered further details from the attack.

After being hit over the head with the blade of a knife, the 33-year-old Los Angeles native ran for his life:

His foot got stuck while running downhill and he got parted from his spectacles while rolling a few metres.

The attacker caught up with him and Czuleger asked him what he wanted.

“He said I had to give him money and my cellphone. I told him I would him hand him my cellphone but he first had to help me find my glasses. It was really bizarre. To my surprise, he agreed and started looking for my glasses in the area I pointed out to him.”

As the attacker was looking for the glasses, he lowered the knife, and Czuleger booted him in the face.

Czuleger then tried to disarm his attacker, and the knife broke in the ensuing struggle.

At this stage, the attacker “started crying hysterically” and pleading with Czuleger:

Czulegger gave him his jersey and jacket and a pack of cigarettes, then ran to nearby residences, where somebody washed away the blood.

You can tell he’s a foreigner. No South African is handing over their clothing and smokes to a man who has just tried to rob them.

In the comments below his original post, Czuleger said he was aware that hiking alone was risky, but thought the busy nature of the route would prevent such an attack:

Czuleger leaves for Lebanon today, and this was certainly not a great way to end a two-month stay in Cape Town.

SANParks has spoken about increasing security across the entire Table Mountain National Park range, but security risks remain:

Table Mountain Watch posted on Facebook that while Signal Hill is a known problem area, “still nothing is done’”.

“Safety and security remission remain a problem in the (Table Mountain National) Park, and no sign of the much publicised multi-billion rand MAJOC (Mission Area Joint Operations Command) SANParks promised to us.”

In response to news of the attack, SANParks advised that people walk, jog, or ride in groups.

We shouldn’t have to live like this, but we do.

[source:iol]