VERY UPSET: Jeff and Alta Craill were thrown out of a B&B in Summerstrand. PICTURE: BRIAN WITBOOI
THE feathers, baggage and insults were flying at a Port Elizabeth guest house this week where a “food fight” and complaint led to a guest being unceremoniously turfed out onto the street.
Outraged Gauteng engineer Jeff Craill, 59, and his wife Alta, 57, have laid a complaint at the Humewood Police Station.
This after Alta was allegedly verbally abused, excessively manhandled and then thrown out of Abby’s Guest House in Port Elizabeth’s upmarket Summerstrand suburb on Wednesday morning.
The owners of the establishment have denied the allegations against them.
According to the
Craills, their troubles started soon after arriving at the Gerdine Street guest house from Johannesburg.
The Craills had been booked into the guest house by Jeff’s employer, an engineering consulting firm.
“Because I had early morning meetings, my company had requested that our accommodation be on a bed and breakfast basis. When we arrived and enquired about the breakfast, we were immediately and emphatically told that there would be no breakfast under any circumstances. This is despite the fact that the guest house’s website states that breakfast is available by arrangement.
“We accepted this and asked for directions to a supermarket so that we could purchase food. This was also despite the fact that there was no stove in the self-catering room,” claims Craill, who added that the owners had greeted them with a bad attitude.
He said he had called his company the next morning to inform them that he was not happy with the standard of accommodation, revealing other concerns, including broken electrical wall sockets in the room. “My company then called the guest house, while I went to the meeting,” he said.
Alta said about 10 minutes after her husband had left, the guest house owners, Warren and Anne Terblanche, stormed into their room and began insulting her and accusing her of wanting to stay at their lodge for free.
“My hair was wet and I still had my slippers on, I had just got out of the shower. They started shouting at me and insulting me, telling me the place looked like a pigsty. They then started telling me that I must get out.
“They started shoving all our things into our suitcases. They broke my husband’s laptop hard drive, which he had secured to a table, and they broke a suitcase.
“The man then manhandled me and within about 10 minutes of them coming into the room, I was thrown out of the room and off the property,” she said.
Alta said she had then been forced to stand in the road in her slippers while making frantic calls to her husband.
The Craills also alleged that the guesthouse owners had come outside and taken a video and photos of her.
When approached for comment, Warren acknowledged a fracas had taken place but had a different story to tell.
“They complained about everything – they did not like the room and they did not like the fact that they did not get any food. The room was like a pigsty when I went in there. They complained, yet they were still there in the morning.
“Why must I let someone stay if they are complaining like that? I think that they just wanted to stay for free. I asked her to leave,” he said, denying that he had manhandled Alta or broken any of their belongings.
In further defence of his actions, Terblanche allegedly traced a guest of his who was staying next to the Craills at the time and delivered a statement allegedly written by the guest to Weekend Post yesterday.
In the statement, Lee-Ann Du Toit alleges she was just metres away when the argument over “payment” took place between Craill and the lodge owners.
She says in her statement that there were no signs of aggression, or that Alta, who she saw leaving the property to wait outside, was distressed or had been abused.
Du Toit confirmed her statement to the Weekend Post yesterday.
-Shaun Gillham
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