Stabroek Market stallholders strongly believe was inside job
STALLHOLDERS in Georgetown’s Stabroek Market and some other vendors are alike on the strongly held view that the June 3 burglary at Cosmopolitan Jewellery Store was committed by person(s) who dwell inside there daily. The stallholder victim, Radhika Samuels told the Guyana Chronicle, on telephone last week, that four days had passed without anyone from the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) or the Guyana Police Force (GPF), who have been involved in the investigations, contacting her.
She said she was frustrated, since the break-in has caused her to lose her lifetime investment and, presently, she is unable to say if and when she will be reopening her business.
Samuels added that she has not decided whether she would continue to sell jewels at the same location.
She said, since the incident, she has not earned any money and has been at home most of the time. Last week, the woman said she was planning to visit City Hall to negotiate a waiver of the fees for holding the stall at least another six months.
She was also to visit MMC, the private firm which provided security at her stall and had installed an alarm system there.

REFUND
Samuels was going to ask them for a refund of some of what she has been paying them for the service over the years. She was satisfied with the security and, while the company did not prevent the heist from taking place, she acknowledges that its hands were tied because of the poor system in place, as it relates to the arrangement between the municipality and private security firms.
The woman said she has been, literally, reduced to begging and is getting by daily through the generosity of friends and some family members.
She has no savings in a bank as all her money was invested in operating the stall.
The store was passed down three generations and she inherited it from her late husband.
Several other stallholders also believe that the multi- million-dollar burglary was executed by persons who knew the stall was not covered by close circuit cameras and secured entry into it from lanes not close to it.
The two cameras that investigators hoped would have assisted them in their probe did not capture any activity on the nights before or the night of the break-in.
Samuels said she was not in the country when the incident occurred but, as soon as she heard of it, she telephoned her son back home and instructed him to review the cameras to see if there was any footage useful to the authorities.
She said the cameras have the capability to store images for a maximum of five days and, if there had been any relating to the crime, the police would have been able to retrieve it.
At another stall, with cameras mounted outside, the owner said while they were strategically positioned, they are fixed in a position that will only allow them to pick up activities that occur directly in front of it and the passageway there.
The man, who did not give his name, said in the past he would sometimes, set the cameras to photograph actions in other lanes of the market but, on the many occasions he did, nothing unusual was caught and his equipment can retain footage for up to three weeks.
He declared that the many burglaries in the market are met only with promises from the M&CC and there is no instance he can remember in all his years of operating there that anyone has been compensated for losses, be it through flood, break-ins or other related issues.