THREE families living in separate homes in one yard secured their homes and left for a wake in the village four houses away on Monday night. They were left in a state of shock, when they returned to find the homes ransacked and cash and jewellery stolen.

Between 21:00hrs and 00:15hrs, bandits broke into the dwelling home of Jasodra Budhran 80, Kalawattie Dhanpersaud called “Wattie”, 53 and Kowsilla Sukhu 41 of Lot 100 Second Street, Alness Village, Corentyne. The trio lives in first, second and third house respectivel, which are located in the same yard.

According to Dhanpersaud, a single mother of two, upon her return from the wake and as she opened her gate, she noticed two pickets from the fence were removed. Recalling that was not how they left the place, she told her neighbour to step back since she felt something was wrong. “When I watch up I see the door open too so I turn around and say look upstairs too; so we turn back and went back to the wake to alert them boys cause we were scared. After the boys come and check we go over to my house which was at the back and then my house door open too. We go up and check, next thing I see them try bruk the lock but it was too big so they pull out the whole facing and break down the door”.

She went on to explain that as they entered the house, the entire upper flat was on a state of disarray. Upon checking she realised the intruders had carted off several pieces of jewellery and a small sum of cash. The first house which is occupied by the elderly Budhran was also broken into, but nothing was stolen. The family believes since the house faces the street, where there was a lot of activity due to the wake nearby, it would have prevented the bandits from carrying out the act on the home of the elderly woman.

Meanwhile, Sukhu, who is a widow and lives alone, explained she is fearful. She believes they were targeted because several overseas-based relatives came into the country for the funeral and were staying in the village but not by them. Sukhu related, she lost three gold bangles valued at $150,000, one pair earrings valued at $63,000, one chain valued at $100,000, three rings valued at $30,000 and US$150.

“I had those jewellery for many many years. This is the first time something like this happen to me in this village and it left me scared. Me feel like meh nah go able sleep back there by myself in the night. Meanwhile, one of the overseas-based relative Deonarine Budram related, that he is now forced to pack up and leave earlier than expected since he is fearful but he is also thankful it is not worse. He also expressed disappointment on part of the Police who he alleged never returned to the scene since the incident. The police were called in and arrived promptly. An investigation has been launched.