How many times can you claim that an app you’ve used probably saved your life? This is the situation Tessa Reddy found herself in when she became the victim of a home invasion while on a long distance Skype call.

Reddy, who lives in Johannesburg, made a Skype call to her son, Naill in Paris, France, and while the call was on-going, Reddy and her husband became the victims of a robbery.

As the couple was being man-handled and shouted at by the robbers, Naill Reddy could hear the entire ordeal unfolding on the other end of the Skype conversation on an Apple iPad.

“This whole time, I could hear Naill breathing [through the iPad]. What he did was switch off the video, but I could hear him typing very fast and talking to his roommate. The roommate told him to mute the device,” Reddy told News24.

Naill managed to get in contact with Reddy’s other son Micah, and contacted a host of other people through Facebook, who all live in South Africa.

“He sent Facebook messages and said ‘Please help. My parents are being attacked. Call Brixton police’,” she explained.

While the children summoned for help, the couple was harassed by the robbers, and asked where the valuables were.

Reddy explained: “We told them to take the television and the money. I told them I don’t have any jewellery. They found cash in the office, cellphones, laptops and the iPad which was still logged onto the Skype call. The guy kept asking whether it is an iPad or iPhone.”

Within about 15 minutes of the sons calling for help and racing to the scene, the police were summoned and eventually arrived at the house in Parktown.

For Reddy, if it wasn’t for the Skype call, things could have taken a turn for the worst.

“It could have gone on for the whole night had it not been for that Skype call… It was traumatic but that is the tale of many South Africans. Had this thing gone on for hours, they could have been agitated for not finding a safe. They could have taken their time and gone through the entire house. It was actually a three way [effort] between Paris, Cape Town and Johannesburg.”

The robbers made off with R10 000 in cash and goods worth about R50 000.

[Image – CC by 2.0/LoKan Sardari]