Bandits struck at two businesses in Edinburgh, East Bank Berbice over the weekend carting off cash and other valuables and beating a restaurant owner. No one has been arrested.
One of the attacks occurred at the Chinese restaurant owned by Lin Yu Qiang, 33, who operates his business at the bottom flat of his two-storey Lot 13 Edinburgh home. The incident occurred at around 1:30 am on Sunday. The shaken Qiang related that he was awoken by a noise in the restaurant and upon checking, he was confronted by four masked men, one armed with a handgun and the others with cutlasses.
The restaurateur recounted that the men demanded cash and valuables. After ransacking the premises, the robbers escaped with $50,000, two laptop computers and a phone. Qiang suffered head injuries during a struggle with one of the perpetrators.
According to information gathered, Qiang was hit in his head with the gun. He was taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital where he was treated and sent home. The restaurateur told Stabroek News that he is now scared to continue with his business. The Chinese national, who recently purchased the restaurant from another Chinese national, said that this is the first time he has been the victim of a robbery. “All I want is for this case to close, let the CID help me catch them and close the case,” he said.
Meanwhile, a family a few houses away at Lot 3 Edinburgh, was also raided by bandits sometime between Saturday night and Sunday morning. The family operated a grocery shop and beer garden. Kelly Datt, 21, the daughter of the shop owners, told Stabroek News that her family was at a wedding house on Saturday night and when her father returned in the wee hours of Sunday morning, he saw that a board had been removed from the front wall of their home. Upon seeing this, he phoned his daughter and informed her.
Datt said the premises was ransacked. “We get one envelope with pictures, like them take it out and see it and pack it back…everything been all over the place but none goods or so na been missing,” she said. However, the bandits escaped with $500,000 and three bottles of rum costing $3000 in total.
Datt related that an old typewriter that looked like a money safe was of interest to the thieves. “We get one of them old typewriters, we find the key break like dem been a try fah open the typewriter case to see if money inside,” she said. According to the young woman, her father had told them not to restock the shop last week so they were keeping the money that was stolen to buy items for the business this week. “We got to now borrow money to buy thing for the shop,” she said.
According to a police source, both matters are being investigated. The source said that investigators are trying to make contact with persons in the village and no arrest has yet been made in any of the matters.
