–during armed robbery at businesswoman’s home

POLICE came in for strident praise yesterday afternoon after catching three armed bandits red-handed in the Lime Street, Newburg apartment of dredge owner, Elizabeth Hernandez, called “Ann”. The incident reportedly occurred shortly after 13:00 hrs.

The trio — two males and a female — were subdued and arrested minutes after entering the premises. They reportedly gained access after the female accomplice, who is known to the businesswoman, telephoned her saying she was on her way to see her.

Upon her arrival at the location, the usually secured gate of the apartment complex was opened by the businesswoman’s young daughter, which is how the two male bandits, one of whom was armed with a gun, gained access to the apartment.

Speaking to this publication just before the police whisked her away to give a statement on the robbery, the visibly shaken Hernandez said the female accomplice was a friend of hers. “She give me a call and told me that she is coming at me. And I tell her that I was tired and I am taking rest, (but) you could make a visit if you wish. And when she reached here, she called me and said, ‘I’m at the gate.’ I said, ‘OK, my baby will open the gate for you.’ So my baby come downstairs and open the gate for her,” Hernandez related.

Realising that her friend was not alone, but had brought along two young men with her, Hernandez said she asked: “Who is y’all?”

Noting that tenants of the building don’t normally open the gate for anyone unless they are known to the occupants of the apartment complex, Hernandez said the bandits told her they had come to meet Patricia, called “Aunty Pat”, an occupant of the complex.

Hernandez said she was in the process of calling out to Pat, when one of the two men, after looking around to ensure no one was watching, suddenly ran upstairs to her apartment,grabbed her by the arm, and demanded that she go inside with him.

Once in the apartment, she said, the youngster whipped out a gun from a bag he was carrying and demanded that she give him everything of value she owned, since he knows her, and had worked with her before.

Hernandez said she responded: “I don’t know you; and you never work with me.” To which he replied: “Yes! I know your name is Ann!”

As she observed: “All my valuables were in the wardrobe, but I told them I don’t have anything. But I allowed them to tumble the wardrobe, since I know my things are hidden in a safe place in the wardrobe, where no one can find it.”

She however told them, “Take all my bags! Everything I have! But they didn’t take the bait, she said, because they knew she had money. At this point, she said, she told them, ‘Y’all will have to kill me, because I don’t have anything. If not, go your way in peace, if you know what is good for you.” To which the one with the gun replied, “I am going to kill you.”

Asked which of the bandits had the gun, Hernandez indicated that it was the one without the dreadlocks. “The same one hit me in the forehead with the gun,” she said, adding: “And they began searching the entire home. And, not satisfied, [they] returned to me and pointed the weapon [at me], asking me for the valuables once more.”

But she stood her ground, Hernandez said. “Right up to the last, I keep telling them I don’t have anything; and they pulled the door in and I locked myself inside. When I lock myself inside, probably they were trying to go out, but the police was [sic] there, and that’s how they got caught.”

Initially, a single mobile police patrol responded to the robbery call after someone called telling the police that a robbery was in progress. That lone patrol was soon reinforced by two others, accompanied by ranks from the Tactical Services Unit (TSU) and the Brickdam Police Station.

Hernandez, who was in tears by this time, said the police arrived just in the nick of time.

As news of the incident spread, residents of the area came out in droves, but stood at a safe distance, in the event gunplay ensued. Everyone waited with bated breath to see what would happen, but it was not until after 14:00 hrs that the police brought out the two young bandits, one a well-known character, and the other a young Rastafarian who seems to be in his late teens.

They were both placed in the tray of a police pick-up as the crowd descended, snapping photographs.

Onlookers were moved to remark on the youthfulness of the dreadlocked bandit, and to reprimand the trio for their action yesterday.

The female accomplice was taken away in a separate vehicle as the crowd cheered the police and gave advice on how to deal with banditry.

Several persons wanted to take the robbers out of the police vehicle and give them a sound thrashing, while others advised them to mend their ways once out of prison.

(By Michel Outridge and Ravin Singh)