-escapes with cash after daring hold-up

A lone gunman posing as a customer held up the Demerara Mutual Life Insurance Company building at Main and Wapping Lane, only a stone’s throw from Central Police Station, in New Amsterdam, escaping with $84,000 in cash after a bold daylight robbery.

Minutes before its 4 pm closure, Candis Soodoo, the cashier, spoke to a tall man, who entered the upper flat of a two-storey building and enquired about an absent member of the staff. After being informed that the agent was not on duty, the visitor turned around pretending to leave the building. But instead, he retraced his steps, pulled out a small handgun from within a black bag and walked up to the unsuspecting Soodoo, placing his hand over her mouth and demanding the day’s sales.

The twenty-four-year-old resident of Smythfield, New Amsterdam, reportedly said that the bandit demanded that she pull out the drawer in which the cash was secured. After complying, the thief took the money and told her to keep her mouth shut, before escaping in a white car which was waiting in the street.

The police were alerted and arrived on the scene shortly after a report was made. However, no arrest had been made up to press time.