Patraos wary of the doorbell now

MUMBAI, June 3: It was all over in three minutes. A gang of five armed bandits burst into the sleepy Patrao household at the Mumbai Port Tr...

MUMBAI, June 3: It was all over in three minutes. A gang of five armed bandits burst into the sleepy Patrao household at the Mumbai Port Trust officers colony in Colaba on May 21, only to be beaten back by a resolute Captain David Patrao, his wife Beryl and daughter Naomi.

It came at a price though. Captain David Patrao sustained two gashes on his skull and was slashed on his hand. His daughter Naomi too sustained similar injuries.

“God saved us. He gave us the instincts to protect ourselves,” says a grateful Captain Patrao, nursing a heavily bandaged right hand.

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What began with a doorbell ringing at 6 a.m. one Wednesday morning saw Beryl Patrao being gagged, threatened with knives and then pushed down by five intruders. Her screams attracted her daughter Naomi who displayed amazing courage to grapple with the intruders, actually tearing off hair and biting one of them on the wrist.

For her resistance, she was slashed twice with a chopper and repeatedly bludgeoned on the head with a blunt object which fractured her skull. Two of her fingers were nearly severed.

Captain Patrao, who then grappled with the four other bandits, too was left severely injured. When the bleeding family had almost resigned to robbery and prepared to hand over their cupboard keys as demanded by the gang, Beryl made a dash for the garden screaming and attracting neighbours, the five bandits fled.

“Seeing Beryl being pushed down, our first instinct was to fight back,” says Patrao.

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However, it was only after the rush of events that the full extent of their injuries sank in. Not thinking he would survive, Patrao asked to be taken to the Byculla Nursing Home, built by his father. Later transferred to the Bombay Hospital, he required exactly seven bottles of blood – over two litres – and was discharged over a week later. “In spite of brutality, we were not cowed down,” said Naomi, 25.

However, the nightmarish incident has slightly changed the Patrao family, especially when the doorbell rings.