Sunday, ANAND’s Liquor and General Store in Success Village, East Coast Demerara, was stolen by three concealed gun towing thieves who took cash, phones and other articles from owner Anand Persaud and four of his employees.
Persaud outside the business tended to some beer bottles when all he felt was a gun to his head and someone pushed him inside. Another employee, who was packing stocks into an outside vehicle, was ordered along with another who was trying to make his way into a neighbor’s yard.
A silver / gray PXX 5970 ‘Fielder’ was parked outside the business with one of the raiders on guard. He was the one who commanded the women inside. Once inside, one of the robbers asked Persaud to take them to the back office. It was this request that made him feel that the criminals were people who knew him and the shop.
The pandaits managed to win a cash sum from the business, along with three mobile phones. They also took Radha Budhu’s bag containing some money, a phone, her ID card, and other documents. Budhu, an employee, was particularly traumatized after the incident and needed the help of his friends to go about her business after the men left. One of the raiders also attacked her with his gun.
Persaud told this publication that while one of the men appeared to be “methodical” when instructing him what to do, another hurled insults and arguments at him. While grateful that no one was injured, Persaud said the robbery is just another dent in his business since the arrival of the Coronavirus pandemic. He is also dealing with some business debts he was hoping to incur soon.
Meanwhile, it was the loud noise that the bottles made outside when they fell and broke that alerted neighbors to the possibility of something wrong.
The Beterverwagting Police Station neighbor called immediately and informed the police officer there that the robbery was at its peak.
In an invited comment, the neighbor said it appeared the police could have cared less and showed no urgency in taking the report. Instead, the neighbor had to repeat one detail several times and instead all the questions were asked of the report’s perpetrator. The neighbor said that if the police had acted with some urgency, it is very likely that the criminals could have been caught. The security cameras, for some reason, were not on during the time of the robbery.