WE are now in the Holiday Season with Christmas week just four or five weeks away. This is a time when consumers, indeed, most citizens, are vulnerable to exploitation as they embark on their holiday shopping or have to employ tradesmen. It is a time when criminals believe that they could easily prey upon citizens, especially those from the countryside.
In today’s offering, we shall remind consumers of some of the ways to protect themselves. In going to the Banks or ATM service booths to withdraw money, always assume that one is under observation by criminals. Accordingly, be always circumspect, and if one senses that one is being followed, quickly retreat into another building. In any case, do not walk around with large sums of money. If one must walk around with large sums, then try to arrange to be accompanied by one or two other persons. Also, keep large sums in different parts of one’s person and in different handbags.

In shopping, one needs to thoroughly examine whatever one is buying since, in the busy atmosphere of Christmas shopping, one could easily buy an item which is defective. For instance, in buying crockery or vases or other earthenware products, one may not see a hairline crack except with careful examination. And such advice is very necessary for buying electrical fittings or equipment – always ascertain that such purchases are working efficiently. Also, if one is buying consumer durables, ensure that one collects the manual and the guarantee or warranty. Warranties for most such items are for at least six months. One must insist that one is given a receipt (bill) with all purchases, no matter how busy the store may be.

In many East Asian and Brazilian stores, they do not give bills except one asks for them. Remember that a receipt ensures that one could return defective goods since, without a receipt, stores will invariably refuse to receive such goods. In addition, a receipt protects the purchaser in that it ascertains his/her ownership of the item purchased. A final caution to buyers – only buy what one requires and don’t be mesmerised by attractive packaging and presentation; do not fall into the syndrome of compulsive buying.
Most people travel by the public transport, mainly the minibuses. At this time, pick-pockets and snatchers come out in force. Snatchers operate wherever crowds are thickest and they tend to loiter around shop entrances or on the pavements. Hold handbags securely, and even in a moving crowd, be on the lookout for any suspicious-looking persons.

When travelling on the minibuses, one should always be on the alert for pick-pockets and bag slashers. Pick-pockets tend to wedge themselves among commuters where they could operate without their victims feeling their searching hands. Others, usually wearing spectacles or sunglasses, would walk with a large cardboard chart of some kind which they would rest on their knees under which their hands could operate unseen. Many of these slash bags with practiced deftness, removing money and other valuables and the victims only realise their loss when they would have gotten home. The late Eileen Cox, the Caribbean’s most prominent consumer advocate, had such an experience where she lost a large sum of money. The slasher was a woman sitting near to Ms Cox. One should, therefore, be on the lookout for women pick-pockets.

Protecting the home is most important at this time: Lock windows and doors when one is going out and lock the gates. Do not leave untended clothes which are being dried after washing since clothes thieves go about with folding sticks with which they gather up clothes or even booty through windows. If one has dogs, have them on the loose both night and day. Neighbours should inform each other if they would be absent from their homes. Many thieves have been challenged and scared away by watchful neighbours. Householders who have security cameras should be prepared to cooperate with each other in the event of a burglary occurring in their vicinity. Recently, for example, two teenage bicycle bandits attacked a maid who was reporting for duty in the morning at a Subryanville home. The neighbour’s camera photographed them and the Police were enabled to apprehend them in Sheriff Street.

One of the worst security problems which have afflicted Georgetown over the last year is the bicycle and motorcycle bandits. The bandits are all young persons, many of them teenagers. They attack pedestrians or persons going into or exiting their gates. The motor-cycle bandits pounce down on persons entering or coming out of their cars and seize the cars, the pillion-rider usually driving it off. These motor-cycle bandits carry firearms. The Police are still to formulate a programme to control or eliminate this form of crime.
Citizens must realise that they have to rely on their own efforts to protect themselves and be prepared to resist the bandits.