Pillow bandits strike again -- businessman plays dead to stay alive PLAYED DEAD: Dhanraj Lall AN EAST Coast Demerara businessman, shot during a robbery Monday night, yesterday said he pretended to be dead after the bandits seemed intent on killing him and his wife. In an attack similar to another last week, the bandits also placed a pillow over the head of the man’s wife and shot at her twice before fleeing with cash, rum, wine and other alcoholic beverages. Dhanraj Lall, 65, of Lot 202 South Better Hope, was shot in the right arm and gun-butted in the face after two gunmen stormed into his liquor store and grocery at about 21:30 h Monday. He told the Guyana Chronicle he was closing up his business place when he heard what sounded like hurried footsteps behind him. Lall said he turned back and was confronted by two gunmen. A pillow They shot him immediately after he was lashed in the face, he related at home yesterday, bandages on his right arm and on his face. Lall said he lay where he fell and remained still while the intruders barged into the lower flat of his house which adjoins the shop and attacked his wife, Parbattie, 53. She said when she heard the gunshot she knew bandits had attacked them and thought her husband was dead. Parbattie said the men tied her hands behind her back with a piece of cement sling, put her on the bed, placed a pillow on her head and fired two shots at her. Fortunately, the bullets did not hit her and the men demanded money, she said. Her husband said he thought his wife had been killed and he decided to remain motionless on the ground. TIED UP: Parbattie Lall displaying the sling which the bandits used to tie her hands during the robbery. Parbattie told the Guyana Chronicle that she began pleading with the bandits but they ransacked the place, took away the day’s sales of about $20,000 from a drawer in the shop and filled their bag with alcoholic beverages including rum and wine that were on the shelves. Lall said that as the bandits were leaving, they turned over his motionless body to ensure he was dead before they escaped over the back zinc fence of the yard. “If I did not play dead they would have killed me because one of them told the other to shoot me again”, he related. The couple believe the bandits had concealed themselves in the yard after surveying the business place earlier in the day. They recalled that one of the two robbers had visited the shop three times to purchase half a pint of rice and other items. “He came the first time and bought half pint of rice, and returned a second time for a piece of salt fish and a dry coconut but said he did not have any money and I gave him a dry coconut and piece of salt fish,”, Parbattie said. She said the man returned a third time and told her he was going to cook a pot of “shine rice” (cook-up with meat) and left. The Lalls have been operating their business for the past 15 years and this was the second time they were robbed. In the first robbery last year, Lall said he was severely beaten and suffered a broken jaw and the bandits carted off a substantial amount of cash. The police recovered a single warhead at the scene yesterday. It is believed that the same bandits attacked a Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara businessman and his family last week and robbed them. In that attack, the men placed a pillow over the head of the businessman’s daughter and shot at her, but the bullet hit her laptop which was on her bed. She fortunately was not wounded. Wednesday, December 21, 2005