Gun-toting bandits yesterday robbed a Crabwood Creek jeweller of approximately $2.5 million in cash and jewellery as he was making his way out of Black Bush Polder, Corentyne via the Yakusari access road.
The businessman, Guru Ramphal called ‘Amit,’ was making his way home from the Yakusari market
when four men armed with guns and cutlasses sprung out of a garden located along the access road and stuck him up.
They then grabbed the jewellery and cash and locked him in the car trunk before escaping on foot through the acres of farmlands.
The businessman, who also sells jewellery at the Rose Hall market, said that he usually sells at the Yakusari market on Sundays. As he was making his way out, he said four men who wore masks and were armed with guns and a cutlass pounced on him.
Ramphal recounted that he attempted to reverse his Toyota Primo car PNN 6023 but was unsuccessful as the men walked up to the vehicle and pointed their guns at him. He opined that if he had attempted to drive past them, they would have probably shot him.
The man recalled that he stepped out of the car and two bandits placed their guns at his head and chest while the other two, one of whom was armed with a gun while the other was armed with a cutlass, combed through the car and took out the jewels. As they were doing so, the two who held him at gunpoint, searched his pockets and took away approximately $250,000 including US$150.
By this time, their accomplices had found the jewels that were in the car and proceeded to escape but just before they did, Ramphal said, they instructed him to jump into the car trunk. When he did that, he recalled, one of the bandits placed a gun at his head while another was saying ‘shoot him! Kill him!’
“I thought they shoot me but me na know what happened,” the man said. He added that he thought the bandits would have used the car to escape but luckily they didn’t and they escaped on foot into the fields located nearby.
Ramphal said that the ordeal lasted roughly about five minutes but he stayed in the trunk of the car for about 10 minutes before freeing himself.
He recalled that he exited his car and flagged down a car which brought the police.
Asked whether he knew who called the police, he said that a senior officer had told him that they were tipped off that an illegal activity was occurring in the vicinity.
Ramphal praised the cops for responding promptly to the incident “They came about eight minutes after the incident,” he said.
However, he condemned their actions in instructing rice farmers who arrived on the scene to render assistance, to chase the bandits.
He said that even though the farmers are licensed to use firearms, he believes that the police should have been the persons to chase after the bandits as it is their job. This is the first time that he was robbed, Ramphal said.
