JOSHUA Butts, 23, was nabbed by residents of Edinburg Village, East Bank Berbice on Saturday night just after 21:00hrs after he was found hiding in a closet, at his neighbour’s home, obliquely to where he took up residence a few weeks ago.

The suspect allegedly gained entry into the home by walking up the front stairs, into the patio before climbing through a bedroom window where the room was ransacked.

Celene Patior, a tenant who lives on the lower-flat of the two-storied concrete house, was home alone at the time watching a television programme and texting.
While enjoying her quietude, she heard movements in the upper-flat of the house.
She thought it was very strange to be hearing the sounds, since her landlady who lives upstairs, was away from home.

After confirming that the homeowner was indeed away from her home, Patior contacted her fiancé while the landlady telephoned other nearby neighbours, informing them that a suspected thief was in her home.

As furniture was being pulled around the house by the intruder, neighbours surrounded the house while efforts were made to contact the police at Sister’s Police Station.

But help was not forthcoming from the police station as persons were told “no vehicle available”. Several calls were made to the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam but the callers were told ‘contact cannot be made with the patrol,’ the landlady related.

As a result, she gave neighbours permission to enter her home and after searching diligently, they found the suspect in a closet.

Immediately, they began to beat him but stopped after a driver urged them to hand him over to the police, which they did.

The injured man was taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital where he remains under police guard in the Male Surgical Ward.