Two brazen bandits carted off about $500,000 in cash and
jewellery from a West Coast goldsmith around 6:30 hours yesterday
morning after scaring the man's mother with a handgun.
A handgun
The businessman, Awad Narine
Baldeo of De Kendren Old Road,
West Coast Demerara, had just left for his stall at the Parika
Market with his wife Bhagwandai Sugrim.
Sugrim told Kaieteur News that she left her
children, a nine and six-year-old with their 59-year-old
grandmother,Lilowtie Baldeo.
The woman said she and her husband had barely turned onto the
public road when her mother-in-law said she heard someone rapping at
the door.
Sugrim recounted that Baldeo told her that she unlocked the door
thinking it was the neighbours after the persons started calling
“inside”.
She said the woman was reportedly held by her hair and
immediately forced back inside by a man pointing a handgun in her
direction.
Baldeo told police that a second gunman stood watch outside while
the other instructed the elderly woman to shut all the windows.
Baldeo recalled that the gunman wore gloves and mask and demanded
the keys to the safe.
She said she complied with the intruder, who was wearing a white
shirt, since he threatened to shoot her.
When the safe was opened, the bandit reportedly picked up the
cash and jewellery and told Baldeo to sit on a chair before fleeing
with his accomplice.
The shaken woman said she listened to the departing voices for a
while before screaming for her neighbours.
“They called us at the market and told us to come home,” Sugrim
said.
She told this newspaper that the bandits emptied four wardrobes
in their quest for more cash.
Sugrim said the men who might be from the area, probably entered
the premises from the back of the yard.
She added that the family suffered severe losses in May when they
were robbed of $1 million in cash and jewellery.
The police arrived on the scene minutes after the robbery but
could not uplift prints since the men wore gloves.
According to Sugrim, there were several persons on the street,
but no one reported seeing anything strange.
Investigations are ongoing.
Sunday
09-10-2005
