… over alleged poolside robbery

A CUSTOMER who was allegedly robbed while utilising the swimming pool facilities at the Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel at Providence last Sunday, is not pleased with how the hotel has responded to the incident.

Taalib Persaud claims that himself, family members and friends were robbed of over $300,000 in cash along with electronics including an iPhone 10XMax, an iPhone 8Plus, and wallets containing drivers’ licences, credit cards, and debit cards, when they visited the pool.

Since then, he says his pleas to the hotel to release vital security footage to aid the police in apprehending the perpetrators are being disregarded. “I have an American friend with me who came to spend some time in Guyana but now he’s going home with none of his personal belongings. This is shameful on behalf of Princess Hotel,” Persaud asserted.
“I don’t know what to do right now, the only thing I’m thinking is to get a lawyer, because we paid to use that pool, we paid for food, we paid for every service offered there. You’re supposedly supposed to be protected. They searching you, checking you and when you go inside you’re still unsafe.”

Persaud said that when the issue occurred on Sunday, a man who identified himself as the hotel’s head of security continually reassured that he was working to acquire the video footage. However up to Thursday they were still unable to receive it.

“We spoke to him and we said we really need the surveillance footage so we can track down the persons, because we’re already tracking the phones. He said his guys are working on getting the footage, and keep calm relax everything is going to be fine. That’s all he’s telling me. I said sir I can’t keep calm my phone is leaving the hotel. All he’s saying is he’s working on it, up to now he’s working on it,” Persaud stated.

When contacted on Thursday, the hotel’s front desk receptionist informed that the security head of department was in a meeting. According to Persaud, himself and four other persons arrived at the hotel at around 3:00pm on Sunday and paid to use the swimming pool, leaving their belongings on a nearby table before venturing into the pool.

When they returned approximately an hour later, it was realised that certain items were missing. An alarm was immediately raised and using GPS technology, the locations of two of the missing phones were identified. Persaud said while he tried to track down the phones using their locations, his parents made a report at the Providence Police Station and the police were brought to the site where one of the missing phones was transmitting at its location.

However, Persaud noted that the police said they could not go into the premises unless they got the footage of the video showing who were the person or persons who committed the robbery.

Persaud and his party then returned to Princess Hotel, and the head of security then informed them that the hotel would only release the footage to the police.
After returning to the Providence Police Station, Persaud was further informed that they first needed to obtain authorisation from the Brickdam Police Station. Persaud said it was not until Wednesday that he was again contacted by the police, who said that the hotel was still refusing to hand over the footage.

Calls made to the Providence Police Station on Thursday for an update on the situation went unanswered. “He [the police officer] said he went to Princess and they didn’t give him anything. He tell us that we got to come in and give a next statement, [on Wednesday]. We have to follow up this thing. We’re not dropping this thing. We’re going to go probably [today] because I have a business to run and when I leave there’s no one to look after my business, so when I get time I will have to go back to the station to give the other statements,” Persaud said.

Noting that the alleged incident is a serious one, president of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG), Mitra Ramkumar, noted that the association will be doing its best to look into the issue. The Ramada Hotel is a member of THAG. Persaud now hopes that his story will serve to warn others to be more careful when they visit the hotel’s pool. This incident comes just weeks after the hotel was ordered to pay some $7.5 million when it lost its case against Marcia Duke, mother of Shaquille Edwards—the teen boy who died by drowning in the pool of the hotel four years ago. Duke contended that the hotel negligently failed to provide a lifeguard on duty and failed to place visible warning signs to the public of the dangers of using the pool which was at the premises of the defendant, thereby negligently causing the death of Edwards by drowning.