Well known local comedian Linden ‘Jumbie’ Jones and his wife Maria Benschop were, in the wee hours of yesterday morning, robbed of over $250,000 in cash and items by an armed gunman and accomplice at their West Ruimveldt home, two houses away from the West Ruimveldt Police Station.
The incident occurred sometime around 1:30 am as Benschop was returning home. Her husband, Jones, spoke to this newspaper as the woman was too traumatized to speak. He recalled that his wife had driven up to the house, opened the gate, parked the car and was returning to close the gate when the two men, one armed with a gun and masked approached her. He said that the gun-toting bandit placed the gun to her head and instructed her not to make a sound otherwise they would shoot her in the head. They then began to search her bag and her person and took her blackberry cellular phone, $5000 plus dollars in cash that she had and a gold and diamond ring which she was wearing.
Not satisfied the men began searching the vehicle for other valuables and when they came up empty- handed commanded her to open the door to the home. It was then that she told them that she had problems opening the door. “ They cuss her up and told her that she better open the so and so door or they will kill her and kick down the door and kill her family anyway” Jones said.
He said that he had awakened to use the bathroom and was returning to his room in the darkness when he heard the door open and saw Benschop and someone else enter. He said he was about to ask her who it was that she came home with when he noticed the gun. “I hear the door open and felt that something was not right. I just going to ask her, ‘Who you come deh with?’ when I see the gun”. He said in the darkness, because of his dark complexion and since all he was wearing was underwear, the men did not notice him. He used this advantage to run to the back door open it, scaled three fences and ran to the police station nearby.
There the police were reluctant to open their padlocked gate for him although he was screaming that his house was under siege by burglars who were armed. When they did, some ten minutes after, they told him they did not have a vehicle although it was two houses away. “ The police , two young boys stand up watching me in shock as I talking… seemed they were confused…then they tell me they ain’t get no vehicle to come …” he said.
His wife had managed to escape as the men went in search of the person who ran through the back door. She drove to the police station and it was her vehicle that took the police to the family’s home. However on their return they noticed that their home had been ransacked and their 32 inch flat screen television with remote, two cellular phones and their son’s watch were missing. The bandits had already made good their escape.
The police returned to the scene later in the morning where they took statements and dusted for fingerprints.
