Bandits went on a rampage at the Glasgow New Housing Scheme on the East Bank of Berbice (Region 6, East Berbice-Corentyne) over the weekend, creating havoc for residents as they attempted to enter, or were successful in entering, six homes.
Four homes in the scheme were broken into on Sunday morning. In the previous week, two other homes were broken into, and victims had harrowing encounters with the bandits.
In the wee hours of Monday, bandits invaded Lot 1724 Cracks Ville, Glasgow New Housing Scheme, EBB. Owner of the home, Clement John, explained that all of the rooms in the house are sealed, so no one heard when bandits prised open the back door with a crowbar. He gave no details of what was taken.
At Sohan Ramdeen’s Lot 890 Glasgow New Housing Scheme home, louvre panes were removed but the bandits were unable to gain entry into the home. One occupant explained that he had heard the dogs barking and had thought that another animal was in the yard. According to reports, a can of sardines had been punctured and placed in the yard to distract the dogs. Ramdeen explained that it was not until sunrise that he discovered the louvre panes missing from his home.
At about 00:30h on that same Monday, bandits attempted to hammer their way into another Cracks Ville home, despite screams from the occupants. “I jump up from my sleep when I hear. So I listened to hear if (there was) any other sound; but the next noise wasn’t so hard.
Then I wake up my son and tell him that (bandits attacking) this house, and he say, ‘No, is cat.’… He decided to go and check the cameras, and then he see that three of the cameras turn in different directions, and so he go to the bedroom window and start screaming,” the homeowner said.
Despite hearing the occupants of that home raising an alarm, the bandits continued to force their way into the building, which houses a shop. Fortunately, they could not penetrate the grill door that prohibits entry into the building, although they had wrenched open a door leading to the lower flat of the building. And the intruders fled after several residents responded to the cries of the besieged home occupants.
The shop owner said the family had received information in December that persons were planning to burgle their home, and on the night they had received that information a vehicle was observed passing the home ten times, but vanished when police arrived in the area.
The bandits could not gain entry into this home
The early Monday morning bandit rampage also included an attack on teacher Debra Ward’s home. She said she was aware that at least one person was in her home at about 2:30h on Monday. She said the intruder pushed open her bedroom door, but she sprang out of bed and armed herself with a cutlass, causing the male intruder to escape through the front door.
She later discovered that one Government laptop, a cellular phone and approximately $6000, most of which belongs to the school, had been taken from her home. She also discovered that a crowbar had been used to prise open the back door and grill of her home.
Two other homes in the East Bank Berbice community had last Wednesday been broken into. Businessman Chris Hicks said the bandits had managed to make their way only into the lower flat of his home, from whence they removed almost $2M worth of equipment.
He explained that during that attack, the bandits’ efforts to gain access to the upper flat of his home were thwarted because of the way the building is constructed. However, a masked man had climbed onto a part of the roof and had come face-to-face with him; and there was only a glass window separating the two men. According to Hicks, the man and his accomplices immediately fled the scene.
And even as police responded to the Hicks report, three masked men burgled an unlicensed liquor restaurant that is situated in the same street where Hicks lives. Reports are that the bandits confiscated close to $200,000 in cash and a similar amount in jewelry from the shop owner and her school-age daughter before fleeing the scene.
Having broken into that residence, the bandits allegedly woke up the sleeping occupant, Nadira, and told her not to sleep so soundly in the future, even as they demanded more cash and valuables.
Police are investigating all these reports. Several persons have already been arrested.
