SCORES of Hummingbird Street, South Ruimveldt residents yesterday came forward to look on at a police operation at a house where two hijacked cars had been hidden under tarpaulin for several days.

The police who turned up at Lot 2040 Hummingbird Street questioned the persons who had rented the property in the lower and upper flat.
The Guyana Chronicle was told that the police turned up at the residence following a report that former beauty queen Melissa Payne had suffered the loss of a car battery from her vehicle, PJJ 2961, which had been parked on the parapet in front of the house.
The police then heard that the woman would usually park her vehicle inside the yard where she lives upstairs of the house with relatives while the lower flat of the building is occupied by two brothers.
However, over the past few days a car appeared in the yard followed by another taking up the driveway space and forcing her to park on the road. The vehicles were reportedly taken into the yard by one Sean Archibald, who is now being sought by the police.

Heavily armed police swooped down at the location after they realized that the cars in the yard were illegally obtained. Checks found that the cars were registered to an East Coast Demerara man whose vehicle was hijacked along the East Bank while he was on his way to the airport. The persons were dressed like the police while the other vehicle belonged to a man from North East La Penitence.
The cars which were recovered were a white Toyota 212 and a sliver-grey Toyota 212. The white motorcar is registered to one Wayne Barclay of 390 North East La Penitence. That vehicle appeared to be intact, but its number plate was removed and replaced with a fake one.
However, the police were able to determine that something seemed wrong about the car as the number plate was PRR 9716, but the number on the windows, mirrors and lights was PPP 6813, its correct registration.
However, the other vehicle belonging to Zahardeen Alli Mohamed was stripped of most of its interior fixtures, and was sporting a dummy tire on one of the rear wheels. The police were able to recover some of the items belonging to that car inside the home where the suspect resides but the registration plate was removed from the vehicle.
Alli was high in praise of the police for locating his vehicle but he was worried over the condition in which his vehicle was discovered.
Meanwhile the police arrested a brother of the beauty queen and two other men as they continue their investigations into the matter. Some persons yesterday criticized the police for taking persons to the station although they were not responsible for the vehicles on the premises. However, others said that it was wrong for the men to have hijacked the cars as the owners would have struggled to acquire their own vehicles.