What appears to be a well-planned and executed break and enter and robbery some time Sunday night or early yesterday morning has left a businessman pondering his next move after losing an estimated $4.5 million less than one month after making an investment.
North Point Imports in King Street, Georgetown sold a series of expensive GSM cellular phones as well as household electrical appliances and was only opened on December 11 last year.
Proprietor Denswick Northe told Stabroek News that he was at home around 6 yesterday morning when ranks of the Guyana Police Force went to inform him that his business place had been broken into.
Northe, who rushed over immediately, said when he arrived there he saw the bolts and padlocks that had been on the door lying on the floor and that a number of cell phones were missing. “This was obviously well planned and from my own observations I would say that these guys knew what they were doing and they even used a blow torch to break the padlocks and the grill work and I think they may have come into the store before, examined and analyzed exactly what they had to do,” the distraught businessman said.
He said he felt very discouraged and could not come to grips with what had occurred. “I mean it’s not even a full month since I opened this place and this that happen here is very discouraging. I would even attribute this to our continued economic problem and with this whole Value Added Tax thing I think crime in our country will only increase,” he added.
He said the thieves were careful to take the smaller and more valuable items; over $1.2 million in customer phones and over 60 cell phones that were in for repairs.
A number of DVD players, several electrical household appliances including blenders and pressure cookers, and digital cameras were among the items stolen from the store as well as nearly $50,000 from the cash register.
Amit Mohammed, proprietor of Master Jedi Cell Phone, the company contracted to provide technical services for North Point, was also surprised at the break in and was amazed too at the professional way in which the job was executed, job since no fingerprints were found by police. “It is very sad and discouraging what has happened here and now I know how people feel and when they say that they can’t live in this country any longer and they want to leave… Imagine I had to wake up this morning to this news
