Armed bogus female traffic warden, gang rob, abduct businessman

 

…victim dumped after begging for his life

 

Politics-fresh-faces  Kissoon-calls

 

 

A gang which included a woman partly dressed as a traffic warden robbed a Better Hope, East Coast Demerara businessman of cash, jewellery and his motor scooter, and threatened to kill him before dumping him near the Beterverwagting Backdam.

John Persaud, 34, of Dr. Miller Road, Triumph and who operates a grocery at Better Hope, not only lost the valuables but also two of his teeth during the robbery which occurred around 22:00 hours on Sunday at the Chateau Margot Railway Embankment.

Persaud was gun-butted by one of the bandits after he was forced to stop while he was on his way home.

Speaking with this newspaper, Persaud said that he was in his shop when he noticed a carload of suspicious persons circling the area earlier in the evening.

He decided to close up his grocery and went to collect a pizza he had ordered to take for his family.

On his way back home, he was proceeding along the Railway Embankment when the same car he had noticed earlier pulled in front of him, forcing him to stop.

The young businessman told Kaieteur News that a man, and a woman wearing a reflector jacket similar to the ones used by the Police Traffic Department, emerged from the vehicle.

Three other persons remained in the car.

The woman enquired from him how far away the village of Triumph was, and it was then that he noticed that both the woman and the man were carrying guns.

Persaud said that just after he had given the woman directions, the male bandit demanded that he “get off the bike.”

“I ask he, ‘which f…ing bike?' and before I could seh another word the man lash me in me mouth with a gun.”

Persaud collapsed to the ground and two other bandits emerged from the car and began rummaging through his pants pockets.

“De woman ask me fuh me money and I seh, ‘look lady' and tek out de twenty thousand I had pon me and give she.”

The young businessman said that he tried to hide his gold chain valued at $105,000 but one of the men noticed it and snatched it from his neck.

He said that all the while the woman who was also carrying a gun kept turning her back to him as if she was trying to hide her identity.

Persaud was then placed into the bandits' car while the woman rode away his motor scooter, valued at $260,000.

According to the businessman, throughout the journey further up the East Coast, the men kept threatening to kill him.

“One ah dem call somebody pon de phone and tell dem, look we gat dis ‘pu**y hole', you want we done he?' I beg dem fuh me life,” Persaud related.

He said that the bandits drove him to the back of Beterverwagting, where they told him to get out and walk towards the Backdam without looking back.

Persaud said that while he was standing on the dark road with the bandits' guns trained on him, two persons passed but he was afraid to raise an alarm, since he was certain that the men would have shot him.

Eventually they left him and fled.

The terrified businessman made his way to a shop, where he telephoned his family who subsequently came for him and took him to the Beterverwagting Police Station where he reported the matter.

The businessman said that he had recently bought the motorcycle, and the pizza he had bought for his family was still in the bike when it was stolen by the bandits.

Persaud was treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital where he received three stitches to seal a cut on his lip.

Wednesday 10-18-2006