-relative of owner in custody

Fright is still in the minds of two employees attached to the R Maye Hardware at Providence on the East Bank of Demerara after the company was robbed at gun point by three masked men on Saturday night.

Relating the horrific ordeal, a sales girl attached to the Trinidadian- owned company said that she was in her apartment in the store’s compound  when she heard a noise outside.

Upon peeping out , she saw two men putting on masks , while  armed with a crowbar, knife and a gun. She immediately hid inside her washroom where she locked herself in ,however moments later the men kicked open the door to her apartment.

“After they came in they jump up my bed and point the gun in the wash room telling me to open the door or else they will shoot, I began to panic and then they warned me if I don’t open the door they will kill me,” the young lady recounted.

After she opened the door, the masked men used duck tape to tie her feet, hands and cover her mouth ,while brandishing a knife.

She said the men demanded the keys for the upper flat of the building where they insisted the businessman’s money was kept. Two of the men ventured upstairs in the building and ransacked the premises and carted off millions of dollars which was stashed there by the proprietor of the business .

The woman said when the men took her back down to her apartment , she saw the company’s security guard was also tied-up . She said the men threatened to shoot her and the guard but she begged for her life. “They were asking who to shoot then one said shoot the girl, I begged and started to cry telling them I have a daughter to live for,” the traumatised woman said. 

She said the men left the scene but not before robbing her of her  Samsung mobile phone, some cash and her gold earring.

Police subsequently arrested the nephew of the businessman . Reports are that the man knew about the operations of the business and he was recently fired by his uncle in relation to another robbery which took place at the store  prior to Saturday night’s ordeal. (Indrawattie Natram)