A GUYANA National Newspapers Limited (GNNL) employee reportedly lost $46,000 while travelling on a minibus in the city just over a week ago.Convinced he was robbed by a ‘pick-pocket’ who was keeping track of his every move, this employee is urging the public to be on the lookout when using public transportation, as ‘pick-pockets’ may be on board, just awaiting opportunity to rob them.

The employee recalls joining a Route 40 minibus at the stop at Vlissengen Road and Lama Avenue, just outside the Shell gas station, and sitting immediately behind the conductor. He had the money on his person, neatly wrapped in a small blue plastic bag, which may have somehow been dislodged when he sat down, and, unknowing to him, was now in full view of whoever was sitting behind him.

When the bus turned into Regent Street moments later, the employee said, he heard someone behind him call out to the conductor, “Ah coming off hey! Ah coming off hey!” The employee said he impulsively looked around, and the man immediately decided he was not disembarking anymore.

When the employee was about to disembark the bus at Orange Walk, another man, who was also disembarking but was saddled with two heavy bags, asked him to retrieve his cell-phone which he had dropped in attempting to disembark the bus.

“As I bent down to pick up the phone,” the employee said, “I felt someone graze me. When I looked up, I see the same man who had made a false alarm about wanting to disembark at the head of Regent Street hurrying away from the scene.”

The employee said that as he walked away from the bus, he suddenly remembered his money; and as he pushed his hand into his pocket, he realised it was gone. He tried calling out to the bus man, but the bus had already picked up speed and was headed down town.

Now unable to make the purchase for which he had travelled, the beleaguered employee was forced to return home empty-handed, while the strange man must probably have found himself $46,000 richer.

Relating his experience to a small businessman a few days later, this employee learned that the businessman had fallen for the same ruse while travelling on a minibus. The businessman related that as he bent down to pick up the phone, another man, who was apparently working in collusion with the owner of the cell-phone, pretended to bump into him, and robbed him of the $15,000 he had on his person.

The GNNL employee is reiterating his call to commuters of public transportation to be very careful, especially when carrying large sums of money on their persons.