Following two break-ins at his Ozama Street, North Ruimveldt home, including one that saw put up a fight with an intruder who was armed with an ice pick, Vice-Chairman of Demerara Harbour Bridge Board Joseph Holder is now living in fear.
Holder, 80, told Stabroek News yesterday that the pre-dawn break-ins occurred on Tuesday and Thursday and although reports were made to the police, they are yet to visit.
Holder, who lives at the property with his wife, related that on the first occasion, Tuesday around 4.30 am, he was about to head into bed when he noticed his front windows opened and items around the upper flat of the home rearranged. That was when he realized that someone had been in the home.
On that occasion, Holder informed, the intruder took away foreign currency that was in his wallet in the bedroom. He said that later the same he made a report to the police, but they never came to his premises.
Then on Thursday at 3.45 am, he was awakened by his wife telling him that a man was trying to gain entry to their bedroom through a window. “Startled, I got up from out of the bed. By this time, he had entered the room and crossed the bed to the other side where my wife was,” Holder explained.
The engineer said his wife was trying to reach for a small axe, which she kept in the wardrobe, but the intruder pulled her away and pushed her onto the bed.
Holder said that without fear he approached the man and put him in a “hold” like the ones he saw in fight scenes on the television. “He kept me off of him by firing punches and kicks to my body but this did not stop me,” he said.
He added that the intruder managed to get loose and ran to a locked door that leads into their washroom. “He was unable to open the door and so I advanced towards him and as I did so the man took out an ice pick and threatened to bore me with it,” Holder recalled.
He said that at that point he thought more about his life and suggested to the man that he would open the door for him. Holder said the intruder agreed, and he opened the door to the bathroom which had another door leading into the hallway of the upper flat and out of the premises through an inner stairway.
“He ran out of the room to the stairs leading to the ground floor with me running behind him,” Holder said. “He threw down a lamp and a fan behind him to slow me down.”
Holder noted that the intruder left his home through the back door, which was open. “By the time I reached the back door he was gone,” he added.
He then immediately called the Impact Patrol, Police Headquarters Eve Leary and Brickdam Police Station, but all of the numbers rang out. On his second attempt to call Brickdam, a woman officer answered and told him she would send a patrol; no one ever showed up.
Holder said later that morning he called East La Penitence Police Station and was advised to visit the station to make a report.
On checking his home, he realized that several home electronics, computers and phones were missing, amounting to about $300,000. He said a kitchen window was also broken, which could have meant that the intruder had an accomplice.
The home owner informed Stabroek News that intruders had entered his yard years ago. He said there are never police patrols in his area and he would like that to change so he can feel safe in his home again.
Holder, a former project manager for the harbour bridge including during its construction, said a few of his friends had helped install makeshift barriers to his windows and doors, but he was afraid to leave his wife at home alone. They are also afraid that if they both leave the house, the intruders might return.
