Police are investigating a robbery carried out on an Anna Catherina, West Coast Demerara supermarket on Friday evening.
The attack occurred after 8 pm, when four men, including two armed with handguns and another with a knife, attacked the owner of the business, Anthony Bashir, and two of his workers, all of whom were relieved of their cell phones.
Bashir, via telephone, told Sunday Stabroek that although he usually closes early, he decided to stay open a bit longer on Friday to facilitate visitors to a “wake house,” located just two doors away.
The businessman said he was briefing his employees on the work schedule for the extended weekend when three of the four men walked in. “One of the men walked with a gun and come pointing it at me, saying ‘Don’t move, don’t move….’ They then went ahead and pull down the shutters while the fourth man, who was masked, pull in the gate,” Bashir said.
While inside, the men reportedly started asking for the location of the light switch to turn off the light in an attempt to give those on the outside the impression that the store was closed, the businessman related.
However, according to Bashir, it was thanks to a little girl who came to the store a make a purchase that he managed to raise an alarm.
“A little girl who came to the store saw the man outside with a mask on and went back to the wake house and told some people there… when they realise what was going on, they came over and the bandits inside start to panic,” he related.
As a result, the men reportedly grabbed $30,000 in cash and $10,000 worth of phone cards before escaping through the back exit and subsequently over his and his neighbour’s fences.
Bashir said he then contacted the Leonora Police Station to report the attack and he was told by a female rank that he would have to visit the police station to lodge an official report.
Already frustrated at what had transpired, he said he called a second time and a patrol vehicle was sent over, while an accompanying officer took statements from him and his employees.
Available video footage of the attack was also handed over to the police as evidence, Bashir said.
He noted that it was the first time he was robbed at the supermarket as he would have taken extra precautions to avoid such an attack in the past. “This is the first time this happened to us but with the news of supermarkets being robbed and all that, I wanted to be extra careful; we had lights installed and even briefed our workers on what to do if something like this is to happen,” he explained.
Meanwhile, police are confident that they will be able to make an arrest soon based on the evidence presented to them thus far, this newspaper was told.
