[imagesource:x]

South Africans got an unorthodox taste of ‘true crime’ viewing on Thursday night when a church’s live stream caught five gunmen holding up the evening service.

The incident was unwillingly streamed in real time to viewers in South Africa and India, which showed the pastor of Emmanuel Community Church in Tea Estate, Durban, calmly raising his hands as an armed robber stepped onto the stage with a handgun.

Congregation members streaming the event had no choice but to watch as the church pastor got patted down unceremoniously by a masked man, all while still holding his microphone.

One of the five thieves can be seen helping himself to the contents of the pastor’s pockets and then casually nicking the sermon iPad off the podium.

It seems like this wasn’t the criminal group’s first rodeo, as the thief on-screen adeptly removed the contents of the pastor’s wallet and then tossed the leather pouch coolly on the stage. The clip culminates in the robber returning to the stage to grab a flat-screen TV; the nonchalance with which he tucks the screen under his arm and saunters off had viewers’ blood running cold.

TimesLIVE journalist Nivashni Nair shared the footage via X:

WATCH A robbery at a KwaZulu-Natal church was captured on livestream on Thursday night. Viewers in SA and India watched a gunman point his firearm at the pastor. pic.twitter.com/3jE5az1hnw

— Nivashni Nair (@NivashniNair) July 28, 2023

We can breathe a sigh of relief that no one was hurt during incident. Prem Balram of security firm Reaction Unit SA (RUSA) explained that, “They held up members of the congregation. The robbers made off with valuables and three vehicles.” The guys from RUSA managed to recover a maroon Toyota Corolla abandoned in Amatikwe, as well as a GWM Steed just a kilometre away. The third car, a white GWM Hover, has not yet been found.

One netizen shared that they “don’t attend a church that doesn’t have armed security,” and encouraged others who were shocked by the video to make sure their own places of worship are packing heat to keep away criminals.

The reality that South Africans are unsafe even in places of worship is a hard pill to swallow – but is switching to a church with a gun-toting pastor who could scare off intruders the answer?

[source:timeslive]