Three armed bandits posing as customers inflicted several
injuries upon and then robbed a Corentyne lumber
dealer and businessman of
over $3M worth in money and jewelry, among other items, in a
daring daylight robbery on Friday.
Subhas Singh of S. Singh Lumber Yard & Hollow Blocks of
Hogstye Village, Corentyne, sustained a swollen mouth and has
aches and pains about his body after he was brutally beaten and
gun- butted by the men.
According to the man’s daughter, 21- year- old Rachel, around
14:00 hrs, she noticed the three men enter the yard and started
to enquire about greenheart wood. She said to them that there
was none in stock at the moment and asked them to check New
Amsterdam.
Davo's
lumber yard Lumberyard-relocates
Living-in-fear-jagdeo Naresh-Pooran-shot
Daylight robbery on Boyo Ramsaroop's
home
She, her father and her sister, seven- year- old Esther were at
home at the time. Her mother was at work elsewhere.
“When I saw them coming in the yard, I turned down the stove
[she was cooking at the time], and went downstairs to see what
they wanted. When I came down, they said they wanted greenheart,
but I told them we only had kabakalli– that’s the normal
wood that everybody was buying. Greenheart is too expensive so
that is why we didn’t have that.
“They said they wanted to know the transportation costs to
Springlands, Corriverton– that they came from Springlands”.
During this time she called her father, who was upstairs, to
talk to them about the transportation fee. Rachel began to get
suspicious at this point having heard one of the men, whom she
said was on his cell phone ever since his arrival, directing
expletives towards the person on the other end of the line.
“I was surprised because customers did not normally do that
but I did not say anything, so I left my father with them and
went back upstairs. I barely heard people running up the step,
and when I turned back, I couldn’t do anything– they had
already been in front the door and they ran in the house and
told us not to make any noise”.
The men then had them lie on the floor and they began to tie
them up one by one. “Then they tied up the driver for the
Canter (Steve) downstairs and put him to lie down”.
She related that the men took her father, all tied up, around
the house to the various rooms and asked him where the money and
gold were. “And they were hitting he, and he begging, begging
them for let them not hurt he daughters and when he begging
them, them keep hitting him”.
The men had a .9mm gun and another type of gun and were
unmasked. One of them emptied one of the guns and showed her the
bullets that they were real and not fake.
They ransacked all of the rooms, she said. He then carried
them “straight to the money and gave them the money”.
“They tumbled all the cupboards, rooms and ransacked the whole
house looking for money”, she said.
Afterwards, the men took her sister’s Laptop computer valued
$185,000, a digital camera, two cell phones, “some stuff that
we did not expect bandits to take”, like her mother’s hat,
which was left behind. “They took some jewelry as well as
artificial jewelry”.
They also took her father’s ID Card, passport and cash book,
jewellery valued over $700,000. They also took $350,000 in cash
that belonged to his wife. She is doing her own business.
Mr. Singh, whose mouth was still swollen from the beatings,
stated that he handed the men $800,000 that was in a bag (from
sales last week and this week). “Me hand them that because me
ain’t want them beat me and terrorise me family– me two
young daughters– so me give them that, and after they were not
satisfied with that, they started to put lashes on me– tie me
hand with a strip, and they ransacked all the rooms. They put
the gun on me and the driver”, he said.
He added that the men, in their quest for more cash, even
destroyed the jacuzzi in one of the bedrooms.
“One of them had a phone and somebody telling them what to do
and where to search and what happened was that when they were
not finding anything, they started to put lash– all me mouth
burst up– and all me back and head and they gun butted me.
When they knocked me I fell down– I weak, I can’t get up
back and two of them knocked me and kicked me– they stomped my
forehead– one kick in me belly and one kick on my back and gun
butted me about three or four times and couple well cuffs on my
mouth”.
Interestingly, Rachel recalled, one of the bandits, ever since
he entered their yard, was on his cell phone, as if he was
taking directions and getting information as to where to look in
the house and what to look for. She believes the entire act was
a set- up. “Somebody was telling he what to do and where to go
and what to ask for”, she posited.
The entire ordeal, she said, lasted more than 30 minutes and
even though there are two gas stations (one of which is located
directly opposite their business), several homes, the Black Bush
Polder entrance road and Felix Austin Police Training College,
nobody saw or did anything to assist.
The men finally left after they had probably heard another
customer calling downstairs. “I just heard the place was quiet
and they gone. They ran down the stairs and ran out the
house.”
A black 192 Model Car with tinted windows (Hire car) drove up
and collected the men and drove off in the direction of New
Amsterdam. Police arrived as usual a few minutes later, untied
the family and took statements.
The Singhs were robbed last in 2008 when armed bandits, at 02:00
hrs, beat down their front door with a sledge hammer and
attacked them. Kaieteur News also understands that just three
hours before the Singhs were attacked and robbed, armed bandits
beat and robbed a #55 Village (a few villages away) shopkeeper.
The woman sustained head injuries and has since been admitted to
the New Amsterdam Hospital. The Singhs believe the two robberies
are connected.
Sunday, April 29,
2012
