-escape with $2M, fire shots
Armed bandits on Monday evening robbed an overseas-based family at Guava Bush, Albion, Corentyne of almost $2M in cash and jewellery and a suspect has been taken into custody.
Doodranie “Pamo” Lachman, 45, told this newspaper yesterday that two masked bandits entered the yard with guns and another remained on the road with a gun and a paling stave. She said they fired several shots during the 10-minute ordeal and while escaping.
The woman said they also fired two shots at a neighbour who was on the phone talking to his girlfriend, thinking that he was calling the police.
Other persons contacted the police at the Albion Station and the ranks responded promptly but the men had already made good their escape.
Lachman said although the bandits were masked, they disconnected the lights when they entered to prevent persons from looking at them and used torchlight to conduct the robbery.
The “young” bandits did not enter the house but stripped Lachman’s brother, who was sitting under the house with other relatives, of US$5,000. Her brother, Ghansham who resides in Canada came for a vacation along with his wife and his parents, Budnarain, 75, who was robbed of over $15,000 and Sukranie Budnarain, 67.
The bandits ripped off the jewellery that Sukranie and other relatives were wearing and threatened to take away a two-year-old boy until the toddler’s father handed them more jewellery.
Lachman said too that the bandits had a hard time removing a gold bangle from a relative’s hand and “she [the relative] shouted at them and asked if they could not see she was wearing a copper bangle and she told them to leave it alone.”
The bandits were firing shots as all this was taking place while everyone screamed hysterically, Lachman said. She recalled that she was sitting with the others when she noticed one of the bandits running on the street.
She said from the time he turned towards the gate she knew he was a bandit and asked, “Who is that?” She then saw him pulling on a mask and jumping over the gate and she dashed into a room in the bottom flat and hid there.
Another bandit opened the gate and followed his accomplice into the yard where they ordered some persons to lie on the floor as they conducted their raid.
At one stage the bandits tried to force open the door to the room where she was hiding but she braced it shut and managed to snap the “dead lock.”
According to Lachman, who came from New York with her 15 and 16-year-old sons, one of the bandits even “clapped” a man with the paling stave as they were fleeing through the street, telling him to “get out the way.”
Residents saw when the bandits entered a white car that was waiting in the compound of the nearby primary school which sped away to the back of the village.
The woman’s sons and another relative who were upstairs heard the gunshots and the commotion and wanted to investigate but she shouted at them not to come. They then secured themselves in the house until the bandits left.
Relatives were pleased with the prompt response by the police who had earlier come in for heavy criticisms for failing to respond to another robbery at a business place in the village on Friday night.
In that case, six men armed with guns and wearing masks stormed a business place at Lot 15A Albion Front just after 11 pm, and left with some $7 million after battering the wife of the owner.
Investigations revealed that Ganesh Prettipaul and the watchman of his premises were standing outside his grocery shop and liquor restaurant when they were confronted by the six men who held them at gunpoint and took them into the building, the police said.
Three of the men remained in the business section of the building where a salesgirl and two male customers were held up, while the other three went to the dwelling area where they held up Prettipaul’s wife. She was beaten about her face and body by the men who then tied her up, after which they ransacked the home and reportedly took $2.4 million and US$13,000. Three cell phones, $11,500 and a quantity of personal jewellery were also taken away from the salesgirl and two customers after which the men escaped.
