FRUSTRATED after being at the receiving end of several robberies, one as recent as Thursday evening, Safe TY reporter /presenter Rehana Ahamad believes justice would be best meted out to thieves by having them repay financially for the things they stole.Ahamad, who has chalked up several years of experience both in the print and television media, told this publication that she was attacked by two bandits on Thursday evening as she walked out of David Rose Street in South Ruimveldt Gardens, Georgetown after work.

She said she was heading to the main thoroughfare, the Aubrey Barker Road, to catch transportation when she observed two motorcycles speed past her.
“Next thing I know, a young man who looks just about my age (21) is yanking on the handbag hung over my left shoulder,” she noted in a Facebook post of her experience.

She said two young men attacked her, using expletives; and as she instinctively raised her right fist in defence, she noticed “a black gun emerge from (the) back pocket (of one), and was frighteningly aimed at my abdomen.” She said she suddenly became helpless and, out of fear, gave the young bandit her handbag.

The assailant then ran off to one of the motorcycles and they sped away, leaving her in fear on the dark roadway. She said she observed a lady watching from a window, but the woman closed her curtains and she was left to plot her next move. She said she had her passport and identification card among other valuables in her bag.

“This hasn’t been a good year for me. First (was) the break-in that left my home empty, then my phone (got stolen); now this,” the young woman stated. “I’m 21, and way past my quota of traumatic experiences. If it was someone else, I would’ve probably told them they need prayers,” she said.

On Independence night in May this year, after celebrating the country’s Golden Jubiliee anniversary that evening, Ahamad said, she and her family returned to their Parfaite Harmonie home on the West Bank of Demerara to find the house cleaned of valuables, including various electronic devices.

In 2012, Ahamad was walking along Regent Street when someone snatched her mobile phone. “I pick up a brick and pelt the guy while he was running. Onlookers chipped in, and I got my phone back,” she said.

The young woman said she reported her Thursday night ordeal to ranks at the East La Penitence Police Station, and is hopeful that the perpetrators would be apprehended.