– to say where ‘de American’ hiding; settle for $7M instead

PLANS to open a gas station have now been temporarily aborted as the money meant to buy the fuel was forcibly taken by bandits mere days before the expected commissioning.

At approximately 23:00h on Monday night, six men armed with knives and guns stormed the Lesbeholden South home of a rice farmer and her son, and beat the daylights out of them in the hope of flushing out a visiting relative of theirs from the United States.

Sixty-two-year-old Rajkumarie Hemchand, called “Pamela”, told the Guyana Chronicle on Thursday that she was rendered speechless when she realised that they were being attacked by armed bandits, and that they were beating her son and a friend of his, both of whom were sitting outside enjoying a good ol’ countryside gyaff, to get the information they sought.

“Dem break up de lights outside and beat meh son and bust up he head, and a next one tek a spade and knock one ah meh brother friend all over he body,” the businesswoman said.
“When they come inside, they start shouting, ‘Wheh de money? Wheh de money?’ And ah hear one ah dem ask fuh meh brother. Dem seh, ‘Wheh de Americans deh?’”

Hemchand said that as the men continued to demand money, they terrorised the family by beating the 25-year-old about his body and gun-butting him in the head.

After not making any headway, they then changed tactics, telling her to lie down while they ransacked the entire lower floor of the house. And when they couldn’t find anything of substance, they began kicking her about her body.

“Dem cuff meh and kick meh wid dem boots and only asking fuh money,
money,” Hemchand said, adding:
“De jewellery I had on me dem pull it out; an’ when de earring wasn’t coming off, one ah dem seh ‘Chop out she ears!’”

The men next made their way to the upper floor of the house, where they made a thorough search of all the rooms; they even upended the wardrobes and barrels, and that’s where they found the $7M. Seemingly satisfied at last, they quickly made their escape.

The woman related that the gas station was to be a joint venture between she and a brother who resides overseas, and that he only came in late last week to finalise the deal.
The money that the bandits made off with, she said, was to have been used to buy the fuel to get the business up and running.

The only reason he was not home when the robbery went down was because he had gone to drop another relative home.

The matter was reported to the police on Tuesday morning, but so far, no arrests have been made.