A businessman and his wife of Number 61 Village, Corentyne had a rude awakening around 10:30 pm on Thursday when three masked bandits barged into their bedroom and tied them up and carted off over $1M worth in cash and jewellery.

President Bhar-rat Jagdeo, Commander in chief of the Armed Forces

The businessman, 47-year-old Khemraj called `Ponytail' told Stabroek News he was jerked out of his sleep when the three bandits who were armed with a gun and two cutlasses shook his shoulder and shouted, "don't keep noise. Give we all de f****** money."

 

The men gained entry to the house by leaning over the back landing and removing three louvre panes from the washroom window. It appeared that one of the bandits jumped in and opened the back door for his accomplices.

          

They robbed the couple of $500,000, jewellery valued $600,000, US$200, four cellular phones worth $45,000, a cordless phone valued $19,000 and a CD player.

The occupants said after the men left they telephoned for police at the Number 51 and Springlands police stations and ranks told them they could not go as they did not have gasoline. The ranks turned up a few minutes later after a resident went for them with this vehicle.

Khemraj's wife, Dolly Desi said she heard the men cursing and demanding money and the next thing she knew they were ripping the bed sheet apart.

She said the men used the sheet to blindfold them, bind their hands behind their back and gag them.

Desi said she spat the cloth out and told the men to take the money from three bags in the room and from the ledge. But they still kept ransacking the house and asking for more money and when Desi said she did not have more they threatened to kill her husband.

She then pleaded, "Ow buddy this is all we gat. Tek this and go and don't hurt anybody." Another bandit then told his accomplices "gimme she and she gon show me weh de jewellery deh."

She said she then told them to "loose me and ah gon show you." The bandits then brought her out of the room, removed the cloth from her eyes and she showed them where the jewellery was kept.

They then covered her eyes again and ordered her to "gimme de gun y'all gat" but she told them they did not have any gun.

Khemraj said the bandits also demanded the key to his pick-up and he told them to take it from the table. "I thought they woulda throw me in the pick-up and take me away. But they didn't bother with the key," he said.

The men then escaped through the backdoor and scaled the fence into an open lot. Residents said they saw a white wagon passing slowly around the same time and felt the bandits must have entered it.

Three masked bandits also robbed Deonarine Singh, 36, a welder of Maida Farms around 7:30 pm on the same day of $21,500 in cash, jewellery and a DVD player.

According to reports Singh was standing on the eastern landing of his house when three masked bandits, armed with two long guns and a handgun stuck him.

They bound him with duct tape and demanded cash and jewellery. The men then ransacked the house and re-moved the items and escaped.

Meanwhile a bandit also broke into a snackette belonging to Sheila Totaram, 48, of Number 43 Village and stole beverages as well as salted and sweet snacks worth about $30,000. She said when she woke up yesterday morning she made the discovery.

Totaram said this is the fourth time the shop was broken into and police are looking for a youth who is suspected to have committed the offence. The culprit, she said stole three small knives and cucumbers she had in an outdoor kitchen. He left the cucumber peel as well as empty snack packets behind.

The woman said residents related that they saw the youth sitting on a bench in front of her house with the knives around 1 am. He also reportedly broke into three other shops within recent times.