The hijacked vehicle, in which three robbers escaped with an undisclosed sum of cash stolen from Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) employees, was found abandoned yesterday a short distance from where the robbery occurred.
In a brief press statement yesterday, the GPOC said that the vehicle was transporting cash and was making its way back to the head office in Georgetown when it was attacked. The GPOC said that at about 4:30pm on Tuesday, three men armed with guns confronted the driver of the vehicle and staff members as they made their way along the Ogle Airstrip Road, East Coast Demerara.
The GPOC statement reported: “The bandits forced the staff members to leave the vehicle and thereafter escaped with an undisclosed sum of cash and the vehicle”. When Stabroek News contacted the Post Master General Henry Dundas yesterday, he said that the press release was being prepared and declined to comment further.
A senior police source told Stabroek News last night that the route and timings of the GPOC vehicle, which usually transports large amounts of cash, is not common knowledge. Some information, the source said, was leaked to the attackers. An employee was taken into custody following the incident and was up to press time still assisting police with investigations.
Meanwhile, in a press statement issued last evening, police said that the vehicle was found at Atlanticville, East Coast Demerara. An empty canister which had contained the cash and empty postal bags were inside the abandoned vehicle.
However, police gave a different time of the robbery. According to them, the incident occurred at about 5.40pm at the Ogle Railway Embankment Road. Driver Delvin Heywood and security guards Debra Wilson and Wilfred Forde, all employees of the GPOC, were attacked and robbed by three men. One of the attackers, police said, was armed with a gun.
Heywood and the security guards, police reported, were in motor car PLL 415. The employees had just collected mail bags and a canister containing the undisclosed amount of cash from various locations. Stabroek News also understands that the vehicle uplifted items from the Clonbrook, Melanie and Beterverwagting Post Offices, all on the East Coast before heading to Ogle.
Police said: “While the vehicle was stopped at the junction of the Ogle Access Road and the Railway Embankment Road, the three perpetrators went to the vehicle where they held up the victims and relieved Debra Wilson of her service .38 revolver and six rounds. The men then ordered their victims out of the vehicle and escaped with it along with the mail bags and cash.”
This attack comes days after Chairman of the Board of the GPOC Juan Edghill said that security will be reviewed at post offices countrywide, following break-ins at several such facilities, including a $5.7M heist at the Beterverwagting Post Office last week Tuesday.
Edghill admitted to lapses in security and said internal investigations had been launched and action will be taken against those culpable. The BV heist is the biggest ever experienced by the GPOC. The perpetrators have not been caught.
The incident followed a break-in at the Clonbrook Post Office, also located on the East Coast of Demerara, where attempts were also made to torch a safe. The perpetrators left empty handed. No security officers were in place at the two buildings.
