Police recover $1.3M in jewellery after shootout with bandits
Quick action by a patrol unit along with members of the Rose Hall Town Constabulary led to the recovery of a bag containing $1.3m from two armed bandits.
The two armed bandits, who fled into a bushy area after a brief shootout with the police, had staged a daring robbery outside the Rose Hall Market yesterday.
Reports stated that the men had snatched a haversack containing a large quantity of gold, diamond and silver jewellery, from businessman Robin Persaud.
Thirty-year-old Maria Persaud said that she and her husband Robin Persaud had just closed their business, Robin's Jewellery, in the market around 12:55 hours.
They were about to make their way home when the bandits struck.
The woman said that as she was approaching her husband, who was waiting on a motor scooter, she heard some one exclaimed, “Don't move!”
She continued, “I feel the man stick a gun to my head.”
Mrs. Persaud said that she saw another armed man snatch the haversack from her husband. She and her husband were momentarily dazed until a market constable shouted, “Boy you get rob!…Run! Thief! Thief!”
The businessman recounted that he had placed the cash from the day's sales in his pants pocket, so the men did not take that.
He said that he saw the two men approaching him but it was not until one of them placed the gun to his head that he realised that they were armed.
“He put the gun to my head and take the bag. I was shocked, I left standing there,” Persaud told Kaieteur News.
Within seconds, the businessman, along with others gave chase.
“Plenty people start running behind them. Then the police come. After the police start to fire shots, the men drop the bag and continue running.”
The bandits did not get away empty handed.
“I had a bottle of mentholated spirits wrap up tight, tight in brown paper and I put it in the haversack pocket. The men take that.”
Police Divisional Commander Ivelaw Whittaker told this newspaper that a police mobile patrol responded promptly to the alarm raised by several residents.
He said that as the police were pursuing the men the bandits discharged several rounds, forcing the police to respond.
“However, the men dropped the bag and ran away. We recovered the bag,” Whittaker said.
The bag was recovered on the Babu John Foreshore, approximately one mile away.
Police have since stepped up their surveillance of the area with the aim of apprehending the two bandits.
Mrs. Persaud said that she is a librarian at a nearby secondary school and was helping out at the jewel store for one week.
The couple said that since they had been in business for over three years, this was their first robbery.
Saturday, February 26, 2005