Ranks from the Fort Wellington Police Station arrested two bandits and recovered a firearm shortly after responding to a robbery at a grocery shop at Bath, New Housing Scheme, West Berbice around 4:20 pm yesterday.

The police combed the backlands and found the men hiding out in a rice field. The cops also retrieved a bag containing a small amount of cash that was stolen from the owners.

Krishna Seelall told Stabroek News that during the five-minute ordeal the bandits gun-butted his face and used duct tape to bind him and his wife, Yokoliza Seenarine. They escaped with $25,000.

He said his wife was in the shop with their seven-year-old when the bandits held her up with a gun. The child slipped out of the shop and ran to the back of the yard where Seelall was and told him “daddy, bandit a kill mammy.”

Thinking it was an April Fool’s Day joke he did not take the child seriously but decided to go into the house anyway, to investigate.

He was just entering the dining room when the bandits who brought his wife in from the shop dealt him the blows. They then bound him and his wife as they ransacked the house and found $15,000. They had also removed $10,000 from a drawer in the shop.

Seenarine recalled that the men entered the shop under the pretext of purchasing a kite. She said they took a long time to decide which kite they wanted. When they finally chose one and it was time to pay one of the bandits started fumbling in his bag for money.

Still keeping a hand in the bag the man advanced towards her and it was only when he pulled out the gun that she realized that she was being robbed. He pointed the gun at her and said “don’t holler or I would shoot you.”

As the bandits were leaving they attempted to lock the couple in the bathroom but they could not find the key. They then ran out onto the road and stopped a passing minibus.
Seenarine later learnt that the bandits ordered the driver to stop at a bushy area and they ran out without paying and left the door open. The driver did not suspect they were bandits.

Seelall, former vice-chairman of the Community Policing Group, ‘B’ Division and a founder member of the West Berbice Chamber of Commerce, said there has been a spate of robberies in the area lately. He asked other businessmen to be more vigilant.

Seelall was pleased with the response by the police and said they “came in for high praise. I am pleased that they were able to catch the bandits so fast.”

Meanwhile, three armed bandits also entered the home of Sampattie Jaipaul, 52, of Princetown, Corriverton and escaped with $350,000 in cash, jewellery and a video camera.

Reports are that the woman who lives with her daughter and son-in-law was in the kitchen cooking when the three bandits who were armed with a gun, a cutlass and a knife entered.

The bandits tied them up with wires and used pieces of cloth to bind their mouths while ransacking the house and demanding the articles.