A brazen gunman who robbed a Berbice family at midday
yesterday was forced to drop most of his booty after police
and an armed businessman in the area arrived on the scene and
gave chase.
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Sattie and Harry Sukhram of Bengal Farm, Corentyne, Berbice,
had just closed up their hardware store when the masked bandit
barged into their home and terrorised them for some 45 minutes
before making off with a number of items
including a bottle of champagne.
The couple told Stabroek News (SN) that an employee was
about to leave the store through the back door when the gunman
confronted him and pushed him back into the building. Sattie
said the gunman marched both her and the worker up to the
upper flat of the building where they encountered her husband.
The gunman then ordered the worker to tie the couple up and
then he bounded the worker, demanding money and then proceeded
to ransack the building.
After his search left him empty-handed he untied the couple
and told them if they didn't hand over the money he would
shoot them. The couple said they handed over cash, a laptop
computer and a quantity of both Digicel and GT&T phone
cards all of which were stuffed into a duffel bag.
The gunman then left through the back door and was
attempting to escape via the couple's backyard. On discovering
that that was impossible, he made a right turn heading for the
front and encountered Sukhram who ordered him out of the yard.
The man then ran through the street firing shots into the air
with two guns. By this time the police had been alerted and
three unarmed ranks, who were on patrol at the time, along
with an armed businessman followed the bandit into the back
dam.
Sources told this newspaper that when the group saw the man
they at first assumed that he was a farmer and did not
confront him right away. SN understands that the man had a bag
on his back and was heading to the back dam and the group only
realised that he was the bandit after he started shooting at
them. The businessman returned a shot and the gunman dropped
his bag and escaped into the bushes.
Sources said that the bandit had put some of the cash into
his pockets as when the bag was checked several pieces of wet
clothes were also in it. The couple's neighbour told this
newspaper that earlier she had observed a "strange
looking man" sitting on the roadway. She said her maid
drew her attention to the man and she initially thought that
he might have been of unsound mind. However, the woman said
she locked up her home and went indoors but she did not alert
her neighbours to the man's presence. She believes that it was
the same man who robbed the couple.
This newspaper understands too that other police ranks were
in the area but they had apparently taken a different route
from the group that confronted the bandit. Police
investigations are continuing.
