On January 13 four men who pretended to be customers brazenly robbed the Mena and Joey Garden of Eden Variety Store in a broad daylight holdup, relieving the shopkeeper of items valued in excess of $1 million.
Stabroek News was told that the shopkeeper, Bibi Ali, 23, was managing the business for relatives who were on vacation overseas.
Ali explained that she was at her Lot 30 Garden of Eden home, East Bank Demerara, with her five-year-old son when four unmasked men entered the premises under the pretence of wanting to purchase alcoholic beverages.
After serving them, the woman said, she went into the house to attend to her food which she was cooking when one of the attackers entered through the backdoor and forced her to the ground.
“He choke me and slammed me to the ground and me started to scream and fight back with he,” she recalled.
At that point, she added, two other men entered the house and one put an ice pick to her chest; the fourth man remained on guard outside. “Dey tek de ice picker and put it to me chest and tell me if I scream dey gonna stab me in me heart,” Ali said.
The woman received a severe beating from the bandits because she refused to comply with their demands. “Dey scotch tape me mouth and tie me up… dey pick up a cutlass and tell me if I scream dey going to chop me up,” she added.
The woman said also that her son who became afraid started screaming, “leave me mummy alone” as he ran towards her, but one of the bandits assaulted him. “Dey choke me son and slap he up… dey put he in de toilet and lock he up inside.”
Ali explained that the premises was ransacked and the men made good their escape with a laptop, gold and diamond jewellery and cash amounting to in excess of $1 million.
Ali gave praise to the customer who “saved her life” as the perpetrators escaped after seeing that a man was about to enter the shop. “De bandit who de guarding called de rest and tell them somebody coming so all a dem run away,” she said.
The matter was reported at the Grove Police Station but no one has been arrested since, the woman said. The distraught Ali said that the night after the robbery, the men returned at around 10 pm and turned on the tap in the yard, probably expecting that she would have gone outside. The following morning, Ali said, a knife and a shovel were discovered in the yard.
When this newspaper visited the residence, the owners of the shop, who were on vacation in Suriname when the incident occurred, raised concerns about their own safety.
Meanwhile, the family members are pleading with the police to look into the matter urgently.
Ali who is still traumatized and fears for her life and for her child said, “I could have been a dead woman, I might ah been dead with my heart in me hand. These people are very dangerous … de police need to do something about this… and find these men.”
