-severely beaten bandit taken into custody
THE OWNER of the Dutch Bottle Café bravely confronted one of, at least, three armed bandits who descended on her North Road business place around 20:30hrs Friday night fully intending to rob it, and possibly her customers dining there at the time as well.
The intrepid Renata Chuck-A-Sang is now a patient at the Woodlands Hospital, nursing injuries to her face after she held onto the bandit carrying a handgun.
A kitchen assistant, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the Guyana Chronicle yesterday that the place was opened for business as usual, and she was in the courtyard awaiting the arrival of 15, mostly foreign, persons who made reservations, when two shifty-looking characters entered the premises. One took a seat and started speaking on his cell-phone while the other ordered a guinness.
Just then, she said, two of the 15 expected guests arrived, so she advised the bartender in the courtyard to expect the others, and was just about to head back upstairs when she happened to glance in the direction of the two suspicious-looking men and spotted a gun in a half-open black bag one of them was carrying.
On seeing this, she said, she ran up the café’s stairs as fast as she could and alerted the owner and other employees that they were about to robbed. In an attempt to prevent the robbery, Chuck-A-Sang ran downstairs and confronted the bandit with the gun, who was by this time brazenly brandishing the weapon. 
As she held on to him and screamed for help at the top of her voice, he began beating her in the face. A few customers ran to her rescue and the employees alerted nearby residents, who also came to the woman’s assistance.
They held onto the gunman, managing to subdue, disarm and detain him until the police showed up to take him into custody.
By then he had received a severe thrashing, as angry residents and customers openly expressed outrage at the attempted robbery, and the way he had beaten the woman.
During the commotion, the courtyard bartender begged patrons to allow him to go to the washroom; neither he nor other staff members, who secured themselves in the upper flat of the building after raising an alarm of “Thief! Thief!” were hurt in the incident.
The robber’s two accomplices escaped in a gold coloured car which was parked outside the business place. They took with them the owner’s laptop, her cell-phone and some money she had in her possession at the time.
Last year, the business was robbed by a group of six men whose booty was a mere $800 while the place was opened on the night shift at about 10pm. (Michel Outridge)