$5.5m snatched
A Bloomfield, Corentyne woman is nursing severe head and body injuries after four bandits converged on her home around 6 pm on Sunday, terrorized her family and carted off over $5.5 million in cash and jewellery.
The woman, Nelawattie Sansarran called Pinky is currently a patient at the New Amsterdam hospital with severe injuries to her head. The bandits also fired several shots at her sister, Sunita Deonarine who lives nearby after she raised an alarm.
She told Stabroek News that she was downstairs in her kitchen when two men dressed in hooded jerseys and armed with pistols walked into her home, pointed the weapons at her and demanded jewellery and cash.
The traumatized and injured woman related that one of the bandits proceeded to beat and curse her. Fearing for her life, she said she complied even as the bandit continued to beat her on the head with the gun butt.
She led them upstairs to her bedroom where she handed over a quantity of gold jewellery worth some $5 million and $500,000 in local and US currency. Sansarran said that after the bandit collected the valuables, they demanded more cash and jewellery and beat and kicked her 15-year-old nephew about the body and threw him into a wardrobe.
However, the child did not sustain any serious injury. The mother of two recalled that one of the bandits ripped out the phone cord and held her 12-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter in another room.
By this time, Sansarran said she observed that the bandit who beat and hit her was quarrelling with his accomplice for “his share” and he appeared “drunk and as if he smoke up.” After he was calmed down by the other bandit, he kept insisting that they should kill the woman.
Nelawattie said that at this point she started begging for her life and the intoxicated bandit raised his pistol to shoot her. She fell at his feet, begging him to spare her life.
The bandit then proceeded to kick her about the body and also stomped her on her belly and her hands which were swollen and black and blue.
Deonarine who lives adjacent to her sister’s home told SN that she was going over to visit her sister when from her bridge she noticed that two persons were fighting in the bedroom.
As she got closer she heard a male voice and became alarmed since Sansarran’s husband works at sea. The distraught sister said she heard the male voice saying “bring all de gold and money, weh de money deh?”
After realizing that something was amiss she said she ran over to the neighbour’s house and raised an alarm. This caused one of the bandits, armed with a long gun to point the gun in her direction and said “you so and so like see too much thief man” and fired at her.
Deonarine said that she ran and jumped into another neighbour’s yard and back to her house, screaming all the way as the bandit kept firing shots at her. Luckily, she said she dodged all the bullets until she was safe in her house where she kept screaming.
She said she noticed four bandits, three of whom were armed. The unarmed bandit stood guard at her sister’s gate.
The incident, Sansarran estimated lasted for about 10 to 12 minutes and the bandits after trashing the entire home and breaking up household articles calmly left the scene and walked towards the waterside and disappeared.
Deanarine said after she saw the bandits leaving she ventured into her sister’s home and saw her in a thick pool of blood lying on the kitchen floor. Thinking her sister was dead she started screaming but decided to throw a bucket of water on her and noticed that she was breathing lightly.
She was rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital and was immediately transferred to the NA Hospital where she was admitted.
Sansarran is nursing lacerations to the back of the head and hand and injuries to her body.