Gunmen rob Chinese
restaurant for second time

Onlookers were forced to watch helplessly as five bandits, including two women, robbed the My Li Hoa Chinese Restaurant on Saffon Street at around 15:30 hours yesterday.

The bandits, three of whom were carrying guns, raided the restaurant after pretending to be customers.

The male proprietor of the food shop sustained injuries during the ordeal, which lasted for about 10 minutes.

According to reports, a man and two women entered the restaurant and ordered one half chicken fried rice and two beers. They were served the beers, while the food was being prepared.

The Chinese proprietor did not suspect that this group was surveying the turf before signaling to accomplices that the coast was clear.

Minutes later, two other men went into the restaurant just as the proprietor was about to serve the customers and ordered another half fried rice, this time to take away.

The Chinese woman, in halting English, told Kaieteur News that as soon as she opened the door to bring out the food, the two men who had just entered, forced her back into the kitchen.

“I shout thief, thief. Chiney Man sleeping inside, he wake up.”

After holding her and her daughter at gunpoint, one of the men who was now joined by their accomplice who had come in with the women, forced their way into the Chinese rest room, where they confronted the male proprietor of the restaurant.

“Dey tell Chiney Man lie down,” the woman said.

They managed to subdue the male restaurant proprietor by lashing him in his head with a gun.

The Chinese woman said she tried to run out from the kitchen, but one of the bandits stopped her and warned her to be quiet.

By this time the two women, who were reportedly acting in collusion with the bandits, hurriedly exited the restaurant.

While in the shop, one of the bandits even tended to some customers who had entered while the robbery was in progress.

“I go in fuh buy water and a Black man sell me a Viva Water. I tell he is not dat I want and he give me a ordinary bottle ah water,” a customer said.

“When I go fuh give he de money, I see one ah dem out de gun to de Chinese woman head. She go fuh come outside and he pull she back in side. I thought it was a joke, but den he put de gun to she head again and she scream. I run out de shop,” the customer added.

The female restaurant proprietor said that the men demanded money.

“I tell dem, ‘You see money, you pick-up'. He seh, ‘Shut you mouth.'”

The bandits then proceeded to the counter and a drawer from which they took an undisclosed amount of cash.

The bandit who was in the rest room with her husband, took another undisclosed amount of cash from him, before escaping into the Albouystown area.

By this time several persons in the area who had heard the woman's scream for help, responded.

However, when they saw that the men were carrying guns, they quickly retreated.

“I go lock door with dem inside. I want people come catch dem, but dey push me away,” the female restaurant proprietor told this newspaper.

This newspaper contacted the police Impact Patrol, which arrived on the scene within minutes. But by then the bandits had disappeared.

The robbery was the second in three weeks at the restaurant.

The proprietor said that one of the men who staged yesterday's robbery was the same man who was involved in the previous robbery.

Up to press time, no one was arrested.