Two armed bandits terrorized and robbed an elderly couple at their Nouvelle Flanders (Crane), West Coast Demerara home and business place on Sunday.
Lennox Albert, 69, said that the men stole $500,000 in cash and his licensed firearm, among other items.
Albert told Stabroek News that the attack occurred around 8 pm, just after he had just padlocked his gate.
He said he was closing the shutters of his shop when he heard the gate shaking. By the time he turned around, one of the bandits had already scaled the fence and grabbed him around his waist.
The bandit ran through Albert’s pockets and took away his licensed Taurus revolver and ordered him not to say anything.
He then told his accomplice to jump the gate and instructed him to go around to the side to access the adjoining house, where Albert’s wife was.
At the time, the woman had a cell phone and $10,000 in her hands and she was also wearing a diamond ring. When she saw the bandits, she tried to run inside and make a call to the neighbours to inform the police but she was not fast enough.
One of the men grabbed the phone and the money and told her to take off the ring and give him. She hesitated and responded that it was “just an ordinary ring” but he again shouted at her to hand it over.
The bandits then ordered her to hand over the rest of the cash and the jewellery that she goes “to wedding house with.” The woman told them that she did not have any more money and that she did not wear jewellery.
The man then took her to one of the bedrooms and ransacked the drawers and found the money.
While taking her to another bedroom in search of more cash, he threatened to kill her if he found more cash. She started begging for her life, asking them if they “want to kill two old people.”
During this time, the other bandit had put her husband to sit on the sofa as he held a gun to his head. They also grabbed a quantity of men’s underwear, colognes and body lotions before escaping.
They had ordered the man give them the gate key and after opening it they threw the lock and key on the ground. The couple did not see in which direction the men escaped.
Albert recalled that one of the bandits entered his shop about an hour before the robbery to purchase mints. He said too that earlier, when he went to close the gate, he had noticed the men, who were “neatly dressed,” standing by the roadside.
