Bandits yesterday afternoon carted off approximately $300,000 from the MS Hack and Son Supermarket located at Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara in the ninth robbery suffered by the business over the years.
Proprietor Mohamed Shaheed Hack expressed frustration to Stabroek News at being a steady target.
Hack said that at the time of yesterday’s robbery, his wife Florian Brathwaite and an employee, along with customers, were in the supermarket. He explained that at around 12:35pm, the bandits entered the premises under the pretext of being customers.
According to the employee, he was at the back attending to a customer but went into the shop to make enquiries from Brathwaite. It was at this point, he related, he saw one of the bandits in the store next to the cashier counter where Brathwaite was.
“As I was walking into the supermarket, I see one of them at the counter and one outside. The one outside run up to me and scramble me by my neck and then tell everybody in the shop to lie down,” he recounted. One of the bandits was armed with a gun, the employee recalled.
“At the counter, they kick the boss lady and tell she give them the money and the one that bring me in the shop lashed me with the gun to my chin and pull off my chain. After they collect the money, they say ‘y’all does sell phone cards’ and ask where the phone cards deh and tell the boss lady to give them the phone cards,” the employee related.
The men collected a bag from Brathwaite with what they believed contained the phone cards and made good their escape. The entire ordeal lasted for about 7-10 minutes.
Hack related that the men managed to escape through an alley after crossing the public road. The police, he said, were alerted about the robbery and responded but the bandits had already fled the scene. The bandits did not wear masks.
Hack estimated that this is the ninth robbery committed on his business. “Is like every year I getting robbed. This is probably the ninth time I am getting robbed. Like I am working hard to give to thieves when they come for it,” he lamented.
In 2014, two days before Eid, Hack said he was robbed of $2.7 million by three gunmen who pounced on him after he arrived home from the market.
Stabroek News had reported that Hack was at home at the time while his wife was returning from her routine collection of debts from wholesale customers in Parika, along with three staff in a bus that they owned. He said that he was standing at the door at the front of their house, situated just past the supermarket when his wife approached him. A silver grey Toyota Premio followed behind her. Hack had said that three armed men exited the car and shouted, “Don’t move”, after which his wife dropped the bag of money and ran into the house, with him scrambling to close the door behind her. The men, he had said, then picked up the bag of money and left.
Hack told Stabroek News that given this most recent robbery, he is once again contemplating migrating to the United States.
“Only two days ago, I put up a ‘for sale’ sign here…I am devastated, scared and fed-up. You cannot run a business without fear of the bandits coming and rob you,” he said.
