The home of public relations expert Kit Nascimento was recently burgled and he says police appear reluctant to investigate.
When Stabroek News contacted Nascimento, he explained that the burglary occurred on July 12, while he was at a location in the Essequibo River.
He did not discover his house had been broken into until late Saturday evening, when his brother-in-law visited the residence and found that it had been ransacked. The items that were stolen included about US$1500; jewellery, including what he described as a ring that was given to him by Haile Selassie; and rugby shirts that were worn by him at the Commonwealth Games.
According to Nascimento, he suspects a gardener he dismissed for theft last Decem-ber may be responsible for the burglary. The gardener had broken into his bedroom and stolen a large amount of jewellery, he explained, while noting that the man was apprehended at the time but the police stated they were unable to find any evidence against him. “When we hired that particular gardener he had a police clearance but when the police [were] called in on his case, they told me that in fact he had a police record and had been charged for suspected murder. How he got a police clearance would be interesting,” he said.
Following the July 12 break-in, Nascimento said he called an Assistant Commis-sioner of Police requesting assistance and a fingerprint specialist was sent to the house. The specialist conducted his job in a thorough manner, he said, and he also informed him that a detective would be arriving soon to interview him.
But no detective showed up. He later called the Brickdam Police Station, from where the fingerprint expert had come, but he was directed to the La Penitence Police Station, which is responsible for investigating the case. ”When I spoke to an inspector in charge at La Penitence, he told me the detective in charge of investigating the case was at cricket,” Nascimento said, adding that he was told that another officer would be sent to investigate.
A woman, who introduced herself as a constable detective, subsequently arrived at his house and Nascimento said he related his suspicions about the former gardener and gave her his address. “We urged the police to take immediate action by going after him as they might find some of the stolen goods,” he explained, further stating that he even arranged for someone to call the man and confirm that he was at home.
However, he noted that the police constable showed minimal interest in the matter.
Since that day, Nascimento stated that he hasn’t heard a single report of any kind from the police. As a result, he said he has been convinced that the police are incapable of properly investigating a crime scene and are obviously completely overwhelmed in terms of any kind of follow through on the investigation.
He said that in spite of the fact that he reported the matter to the Assistant Commis-sioner of Police, which the ordinary citizen would not be able to do, he still had to complain about the reluctance of the police to investigate the matter.
“But the important factor in all of this, in talking with the fingerprint specialist and the constable, was that the house had been burgled by someone who was familiar with the house,” he said, noting that there was enough evidence to show that the perpetrator knew his way around the house and exited using the means that would only be known to someone who knew the house.
When Stabroek News contacted the La Penitence Police Station about the matter, efforts for a comment on the investigation proved futile.
