Bandits pounce on overseas-based couple, relatives

An East Bank Demerara (EBD) family is now terrified after three armed men invaded their property and executed a brazen daylight robbery on Wednesday afternoon.
Their intended target, however, was two overseas-based Guyanese who arrived in the country hours prior to the robbery, leaving investigators to believe that the robbery was set up by the taxi driver, who transported the couple to the Lot 1 Brickery, EBD house from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.

Edwin Persaud and his wife Nazeema Persaud were relieved of their jewellery they were wearing at the time but not before being gun butted and beaten. Persaud’s elderly father, Anand Persaud, was also beaten and relieved of his jewellery and so was the housekeeper, who was in the house at the time of the ordeal.
Daughter of the overseas couple, Simone Lall told Guyana Times that her brother travelled to the airport to collect her parents but as he was waiting on them to clear immigration, he went to purchase a cup of coffee.
Whilst there, her parents, she explained, came through the arrival section and did not see her brother and thought that he did not show up to collect them. They were, however, approached by a “tall slim guy” who enquired if they needed a taxi.
They started to converse with the guy and after waited for some time and not seeing her brother, they boarded the taxi. The taxi, she recalled, dropped off her parents at her grand parents’ home and receiving his payments, he left. It was a white car, the terrified couple told investigators.
At about 15:30h, the daughter explained that her father and grandfather were sitting in the veranda when they saw a dark brown Toyota Primo motorcar pull up in front of the house and three armed men exited.
Upon exiting, the men, all who were armed with handguns rushed to the veranda and held the elderly man at gunpoint while instructing the occupants of the house not to raise an alarm. Nevertheless, one of the bandits whose face was covered with a handkerchief discharged a round shattering a glass table.
“They then took my father into the house, put him to kneel on the ground and demanded money… as they were asking for money, they were relieving him of the jewellery he was wearing… they then turned to my mother and asked her for the money and again they took off her jewellery,” Lall noted.
After relieving the couple of their gold jewellery, they demanded money. Lall further explained that the men ransacked the bedrooms with the intention of getting the suitcases but came up empty handed. The suitecases, she said, were kept in another room that was not easily accessible.
After the 10-minute ordeal, the men jumped into the car they arrived in and fled the scene. Her father, grandfather and mother were taken to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre where they were treated and later sent away.
The Police were contacted and an investigation was launched. No arrests have been made.