Mr. Hafeez Bacchus highlights the point of entry used by the burglars at Tiyo’s Variety Store.

Bacchus said booty worth $3.8M was stolen from his business place, including 63 cell phones, one flat screen 37-inch television, portable DVDs, MP3 and MP4 players, video cameras and boots.

He said entry was gained to his bond through breaching grill work and a panel door that were cut through with a crowbar and clippers that police recovered at the scene.

A cross section of the houses where attempts were made by bandits to break and enter.

Then followed a thwarted burglary next door to Wallace early Wednesday morning, when a woman was apprehended at 02:00h in Boodhoo’s brother’s Lot 6B house.

“I saw her climbing the fence and, when she ran after my call, I ran and caught her,” the Boodhoo sibling reported, adding that she was given a sound thrashing before being handed over to Police.

It was later revealed that the woman is mentally ill and Police released her.

Acting Police Commander Louis Crawford, of ‘D’ Division, said he was aware of the incident.

He said the routine procedure stipulates that the suspect be held until a statement is obtained from the complainant before action is taken.

Prior to this week’s criminal activities, the previous robbery in the once quiet community was committed July 26, 2008, when armed bandits, shot and wounded goldsmith Jonathan Tulsie and his mother, Rose Tulsie in an attempted heist at Lot 14B, Anna Catherina.

Residents have called for more Police patrols and better street lighting to curb the incidence but, until then, they are going to hold regular vigilante meetings.