A family of four is now counting their blessings for being alive after three armed bandits invaded their La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank of Demerara home during the week hours of Wednesday morning.
Naresh Persaud
Reports are at about 02:00h, the Persaud family of Lot 546 Recht Door Zee, Parfaite Harmonie Housing Scheme, WBD, was awakened by three armed men who began demanding cash and valuables while beating them.
Naresh Persaud, 43, and his wife Samantha Thakurdeen, 38, operates a general store in the housing scheme. Persaud reported that while sleeping he felt a hand around his throat and when he opened his eyes he was confronted by two men in his room.
He was gun butted to his head several times while his wife watched on and screamed in horror, resulting in one of the men hitting her to the face. The men then began demanding cash and jewellery, but the family had very little valuables in the home.
Persaud’s son, 19-year-old Sachin, told Guyana Times that the entire ordeal lasted over one hour. The University of Guyana student related that one of the bandits went into his room, woke him and started demanding money and jewellery. He related that when he told them that there was not much valuables in the house, the gunmen became enraged.
“They ushered me to the room where my parents were and my father was lying on the ground, covered, like he was, I don’t know if they were beating him. My sister was on the bed looking on and my mother was on her knees with a big swell on her cheek,” Persaud recounted.
The teenager was then thrown to the ground and ordered to huddle near his family. Persaud said the gunmen then began to ransack the house and collected what little money they could find.
The Persaud’s home
“They said you guys don’t have any money. That’s all the money you have? Let’s beat them. Let’s torture them,” the young man narrated.
The men then proceeded to ransack the house and got away with a minimal amount of cash, cellphones, some jewellery, a laptop, colognes and other items from the shop. It is suspected that the men gained entry by cutting a hole in the roof of the shop and then prised open a grill door to gain access to the house.
“They told us to close our eyes because they don’t want us to see them…and we didn’t have any money, that’s why my dad was being harassed…they wore my clothes from the closet. They said ‘wow, you have nice clothes’. The guy [bandit] pull a shirt and pants on. He took all of my colognes because I had a wide variety of perfume on my vanity and he was like ‘wow, do you have people overseas or something?” Sachin related.
The bandits then began to hurry each other up as they were all scattered in the house hunting for items of value.
The family called on the authorities to seriously consider establishing a Police Outpost in the large housing scheme as they await the construction of a Police station. They reported that numerous robberies are being committed on resident with very little action from the Police.
Following the robbery, the family called 911 but the phone rang out twice forcing them to look for a number for the La Grange Police Station and making subsequent contact. No arrests have been made so far and the Police investigation is still ongoing.
