Armed bandits escaped with close to $1 million after attacking a shop owner and his family at Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara, on Thursday night.
With his head bandaged yesterday, Mohabir Singh, 25, of Two Mile, Church Street, Goed Fortuin, recalled the attack, which also left his employees in a state of shock.
Singh suspected that the men were surveilling the area and aborted a previous attack. He recalled seeing a car stop then drive off just after he had secured the gate to his premises on Wednesday. The occupants appeared to have been exiting the car when it suddenly drove off with a door still open, Singh stated.
However, the men showed up again the next day, earlier, around 6.50 pm and carried out the brazen attack.
As the car was about to stop in front of the shop, it struck a woman who was walking in the corner of the road in company of another. But as the masked men barged out of the car with their weapons, the women wasted no time in fleeing as fast as their feet could carry them, an eyewitness who was nearby said.
While neighbours observed when the bandits attacked, no alarm was raised. However, one of them called the police who came about 30 minutes later. The phone at the police station was reportedly not picked up when the first call was made.
At the said time, Singh was conversing with some of his friends at the entrance of his shop. Three bandits charged at the company of friends while another waited in the car.
Employees observed the men’s approach and fled to an upper flat of the building in company of Singh’s wife, locking a door that leads to the upper flat before securing themselves in a room.
The bandits ordered their hostages to lie still as they took away their cellphones and emptied the cash register.
Singh’s four-year-old son was amongst those lying on the ground with a gun pointing at them. As the terrorised child cried loudly, Singh said, the men demanded more cash and jewellery, since they were not satisfied with the loot from the cash register.
When he refused to find more cash and jewellery for the bandits, the men pointed the gun at his son and asked whether he liked him, Singh recalled.
He was then ordered to open the locked door leading to the upper flat. The men then ordered that the door to the room in which the women were hiding be opened. “I had to beg my wife to open the door, because I was bleeding profusely from a lash to my head,” Singh said.
An additional $700,000 were then handed over to the men before they escaped. The ordeal lasted for about six minutes. “Whilst they had me upstairs…all I was thinking about was my son because I didn’t want them to harm him,” Singh added.
Meanwhile, an employee who was hiding in the room said that she is now very fearful and she is thinking about quitting her job.
When Stabroek News visited, Singh’s son was staying with his grandparents. The traumatised child keeps asking whether the bandits will return, a relative said.
The police said in a statement that officers from ‘D’ Division are on the hunt for three men who robbed and injured the grocery shop owner along with a customer, Sherwin Mayers. Mayers, 37, was relieved of a cellphone and $20,000.
The ‘D’ Division police said they believe the gang will soon be apprehended.
Singh said his friends and employees were all relieved of their cellphones. With the bandits taking the earnings from the day’s sales and the $700,000, Singh said almost $1 million in total was stolen.
