No longer business as usual
-at The Dutch Bottle Café
THE Dutch Bottle Café on North Road, Bourda, Georgetown was a hive of activity on the evening of October 7, 2011. Staffers at the Georgetown eatery were attending to the culinary needs of present customers whilst preparing to receive some 15 mostly foreign guests who had made reservations for the night. It was approximately 20:30 hours, and a member of the kitchen staff were in the courtyard awaiting the arrival of the foreign guests when two dubious characters exited a gold-coloured car and entered the premises.
One took a seat and started speaking on his cell-phone, while the other ordered a Guinness.
Just then, two of the 15 expected guests arrived, so the kitchen staffer advised the courtyard bartender to expect the others, and she 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 bolted upstairs and alerted the owner and other employees that they were about to be robbed.

Commotion
In an attempt to prevent the robbery, proprietrix of the business establishment,
Renata Chuck-A-Sang, ran downstairs and snatched the bandit with the gun, who was by then audaciously brandishing the weapon. As she held on to him and screamed for help at the top of her voice, the gunman began beating her in the face with his weapon.
Up to now she does not know from where she got the strength to physically wrestle with that gunman. She did not realize the extent of her injuries until after the incident. She can only recall being hit in the face so many times she lost count, but she remembers being in a lot of pain, with blood streaming down her face.
The businesswoman said that as a result of the beating she received at the hands of one of three bandits who had attempted to rob the business place and its customers, she suffered two facial fractures which required about 50 sutures, and was hospitalized for a considerable length of time. She is, thankfully, now on the road to recovery, and is grateful for life and indebted to the doctors who assisted in her recovery.
During her ordeal, 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 arrived to take him and his weapon into custody.
By then he had received a severe thrashing, as angry residents and customers openly expressed outrage at the attempted robbery, and the brutal way he had beaten the woman.

Excuses
During the commotion, the courtyard bartender asked patrons to excuse his going to the washroom. He and other staff members then secured themselves in the upper flat of the building, after raising an alarm of “Thief! Thief!” They were consequently unhurt in the incident.
Meanwhile, the robber’s two accomplices escaped in a gold-coloured car which was parked outside the business place, taking with them Chuck-A-Sang’s laptop, her cell-phone, and some money she had in her possession at the time she wrestled with the gunman.

Criminal history
The hapless gunman was identified as Kelvin Poonsammy, 19, of Joseph Pollydore Street, Lodge. When questioned by the police, Poonsammy admitted his involvement in the following armed robberies, which were all committed by a three-man gang:

* On September 9, at Goed Fortuin Housing Scheme, West Bank Demerara, where businessman Bishnu Ramdyal was held up and robbed of $150,000, a quantity of cell phone cards and a cell phone.
* On October 1, at the Dennis Street, Campbellville home of Raymond ‘Rambo’ Gaskin, where he and two female guests were attacked and robbed of
$50,000, two cell phones and a quantity of jewellery. In that incident, Gaskin was chopped on his head and left arm;
*and on October 6, at Ramroop’s Furniture Store, Lombard Street, during which two sales clerks were held at gunpoint and robbed of cash and a cell phone;
Meanwhile, a search of Poonsammy’s home yielded three 9 mm rounds and several items of military kit.

Demise
Police would later report that, at about 10:30 hrs on Sunday, October 9, Poonsammy, who had been in custody at the Brickdam Police Station lock-ups, was found in an unconscious condition in a cell.
He was taken back to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPH), where he had previously been treated, but succumbed while receiving further medical attention.
Police said he had been visited by ranks on duty at 09:00 hrs on that Sunday, and had appeared to be in good condition at that time. No one has been charged with his death.

Aftermath
That ordeal has left Renata Chuck-A-Sang physically scarred. She is unable to re-open The Dutch Bottle Cafe on a full time basis. She stated that physically she is unable to work, as she did before the incident, from 08:00 hours to midnight, and now she operates for a few hours a day, where catering is done based on special orders.
Chuck-A-Sang added that the Dutch Bottle Café will remain closed for business until next year, when she would consider re-opening, given the state of affairs regarding customer parking in front of the business place.

Last year, while the place was opened on the night shift at about 10pm, the business was robbed by a group of six men, whose booty was a mere $800.