President of the Guyana Cricket Board Chetram Singh said yesterday he was upset at the disappearance of the GCB’s equipment from the Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) ground on Woolford Avenue.
Thieves recently took away a three-dish plough and a chipper valued at around $700,000.
Singh said the equipment had been purchased to help prepare grounds for cricket matches.
The GNIC sports club on Woolford avenue has guards stationed there in the nights but not in the day.
Singh said it was believed that the equipment had been removed sometime between September 22-24, a period marked by heavy rainfall. The equipment had been discovered missing on September 25 and a report was made to the Alberttown Police Station, Singh said.
“Those are heavy things. You do not expect to lose equipment like that,” Singh said yesterday adding that the robbery was “well planned and well executed.”
Singh was at a loss as to the reason or reasons for the theft of the equipment which he reasoned could hardly be used in Georgetown as it was more suited for farming or agricultural communities.
Former Deputy Commissioner of Police for Law Enforcement, Alvin Smith, who is in charge of GNIC’s internal security said that the corporation’s policy entails having security guards at the venue only in the nights. Smith said according to his investigations, the sentry on duty at the venue on September 22, discovered the equipment missing when he reported for duty at 7pm that night.
“We have a sentry that worked there that night and when he got there on Saturday night he did not see the equipment, Smith said, adding that there was cricket at the venue during the day.
Smith said a police rank was subsequently dispatched to the venue and did some checks and other inspections.
Smith, a former Crime Chief, said it would be helpful if the equipment had serial numbers by which they could be identified.
He also said that because the equipment had been often transported from grounds in Georgetown the movement of the equipment might not have aroused too much suspicion.
