A Campbellville family is contemplating taking legal action against the Guyana Police Force after US$15,000 ($3M) mysteriously vanished during a search on Friday night which was conducted when a 15-yea-old girl was home alone.
An upset Jennifer Butcher, the head of the household, told Stabroek News yesterday that she would not let the matter die quietly as the ranks who are attached to the narcotics branch acted unprofessionally and moreover she needed back her money to continue her clothing business.
She said that the police were told that she was on her way to the Lot 48 Dadanawa Street, Section K address and could have waited for her. They also denied an attorney access to the premises.
Stabroek News was unable to get a comment from the senior police officials up to press time last evening.
When Stabroek News visited the house clothing was strewn all over the bedroom and in the bathroom. Tiles had been either lifted or removed in some parts. The kitchen was not spared, as dishes were unpacked and items from cupboards removed. The ranks even removed a piece of wood from underneath an inside staircase.
The still traumatized teen recounted to Stabroek News in the presence of Butcher that around 7.30 pm, she was in a bedroom on the upper flat when she decided to look outside.
She said that at that time two persons were supposed to have been fixing her uncle’s car which was parked across the road from the house. She recalled that upon looking outside she saw about eleven men standing outside who were all dressed in officer-like clothing.
The teen said that she was then asked if any adult was home and she responded in the negative. She later learnt that they were attached to the police narcotics branch.
During a subsequent conversation she informed the group that she and her grandmother lived at the house and there were several enquiries about when the grandmother would be returning home.
Moments later she said they entered the yard through a side gate and start “lashing on the door downstairs before walking out of the yard.” Minutes later a police van with uniformed officers arrived. She said that even though the men were insisting that she open the door she said that she could not since she was a minor and was alone at home. At no point could she recall that they told her why they wanted to enter the house.
The frightened teen related how a female rank jumped on the fence and was able to climb onto the veranda where she had been standing. By that time she had returned to her bedroom which leads onto the veranda and had locked the door. She said that the police woman later used a nipper to cut the padlock on a grill door and had a confrontation with the teen during which there was an attempt to handcuff her.
The teen told this newspaper that all through the ordeal an aunt was on the telephone with her advising her what she should and should not do.
She noted that later the back door was “kicked open” and several more persons entered. She recalled that one of them flashed a badge in front of her face but she was unable to read it. She said that all they told her was that they were from narcotics.
According to the teen there were persons in every room of the house. “They started knocking up the ceiling and they kicked open the veranda door downstairs,” she said. All the bedrooms were tumbled up and the toilet bowls were rocked hard in order to ascertain if anything was being concealed underneath, the teen told this newspaper.
She said there was a small hole in one of the walls and a gun was used to try and widen it. The search she said lasted until minutes to ten that night.
“He coming back hey cause he know that this house got drugs,” she recalled one of the men saying.
Second time
Butcher told Stabroek News that she has been living at the address since 1995, noting that a search was conducted on her premises about one year ago. She said that on that occasion no adult was home and as such they left and came back. During that first search the North Road businesswoman said nothing suspicious was found.
Recalling last Friday night, she said that she left her house about half an hour before the ranks arrived. Later she said the teen called her about the presence of police and she advised her to tell the ranks that she was a minor and that her grandmother was on her way. After the teen called back and amidst tears told her that one of the ranks had jumped onto the veranda, she decided to call an attorney who later visited the house but was refused entry.
She said that when she eventually arrived she decided not to enter and sought lodging for the remainder of the night at her daughter’s house. When she visited her house the following morning (yesterday) she discovered that US$15000 which was hidden in a closet in her bedroom was missing. The woman said that during the search the closet door had been broken down.
That money she said was for her to restock her clothing store and it also included some money she was keeping for a friend.
She said that during the search US$320 which was hidden in her underwear drawer, jewellery and other valuables were handed over to the teen.
“The bed got two things at the bottom, they slip de bed. I don’t know what they looking for,” Butcher said, adding that she later went to the Prashad Nagar Outpost to report the missing money. She said that the rank there told her that the report had to be made at Brickdam Police Station. At Brickdam, she said she was told that such reports can only be made Monday to Friday.
Baffled
She said that she is baffled at the way the ranks operated. She noted that during the search the ranks commented that she had a fancy house.
“I was living in America. All these things I bring from America. When I came home back I bring all these things with me about 20 years ago. I care my things,” she said pointing to some of her household furniture.
Butcher noted that she plans to go to her lawyer who is presently out of town and intends to take the matter further. “If I was at home and they had come and did what they had to do I didn’t mind, but you cannot see a child and eleven of y’all come in this house and just ransack my house and the majority of them (the ranks) are men,” she said, adding that “everybody invaded my privacy.”
The businesswoman said that she is convinced that some vindictive person sent the police to her house.
