Residents of Number 50 Village, Corentyne came out in full force and apprehended a bandit who along with an accomplice posed as policemen and attempted to rob a family on Friday night.
The bandit, said to be a wanted man and who was carrying a cutlass and knife, jumped into a trench but the residents persisted in their pursuit of him. He was eventually handed over to the police.
The other bandit, reportedly the same one who escaped when Deodat ‘Popcorn’ Seecharran was shot dead, is being sought by police.
Around 8.45 pm on Friday, the men scaled the veranda of Satkumar Deonat, 24, claiming to be police and ordered him to open the door.
Deonat, his wife and two young children, including a nine-month-old, were already in bed at the time.
He said he became scared when the men shouted, “Oh you put on all the lights. We coming fuh you.” He then phoned his parents, Premwattie ‘Geeta’ Deonat, 46, and Joobrajh Deonat, 48, who reside opposite his home and they advised him not to open the door.
Premwattie said they looked over and saw the suspicious looking men and ran out of the house screaming, “Help! Thief!”
Residents ran out to help but even then the bandits still kept banging on Deonat’s door. It was only after the men were challenged that they started to run.
Premwattie recalled that during a rampage in the area on December 20 last year, bandits broke into her son’s house and robbed him of $200,000.
They also gained entry into her house and escaped with $500,000 while they stole 20 pennyweights of gold jewellery from both homes. She said the money was supposed to be to be used for her daughter’s surgery.
They had threatened to kidnap the man’s children but his wife begged them not to harm them and said that she would give them everything.
Premwattie said the bandits had first tied up her husband on his fish farm before committing the robbery. They had also held her son at gunpoint and took him into the backdam with them as they were escaping. After walking some distance, they told him to go but not to look back.
