Bandits hit Gizmos and Gadgets Regent Street store

Nov 04, 2009 News

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…women among robbers

By: Brushell Blackman and Rabindra Rooplall

A gang of five, including two women, robbed the Gizmos and Gadgets Auto Zone store on Regent Street in broad daylight yesterday, even as the busy shopping area was bustling with activities leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The bandits who escaped in a gold-coloured Toyota AT 170, looted the store of $126,000 that was in the cashier canister, along with a number of cell phones, and a range of musical items.
In addition, the store cashier, Amelia Khan, had her bag that had a cell phone worth $80,000 and $10,000 in cash, stolen. Another employee, Keron Persaud, had his wallet that contained $5,000 along with his cell phone.
According to Amela Khan, it was around 14:30 hours that a woman came under the guise of conducting a Moneygram transaction. Khan said that upon close examination of the woman’s documents that she presented to complete the transaction, she realised that something was amiss.
“Her transaction number was incorrect and she didn’t had any ID,” Khan recalled. She said that after she conveyed this to the smartly dressed young woman the latter promised to return with the correct documents and collect her supposed $40,000 that she even filled out a Moneygram form for.
The visibly traumatised Khan said that when the woman left she contacted the Moneygram main branch and she quickly realised that the transaction was a fake.
Khan, who was manning the store at the time with another employee, Keron Persaud, the sales representative, went about their regular routine in the business establishment.
The woman said that it was about ten minutes later that the woman who had earlier visited the store returned.
However this time she came with another female and three males, and sought to complete her earlier transaction. To Khan’s surprise the documents the woman presented were yet again incorrect. During this time the other bandits were pricing items in the store while she was attending to the woman from her cashier cage.
Khan said she started to become concerned since she realised that something was not right. The young woman said that she came out into the store to give support to Persaud since the five were now checking the prices for virtually everything in the store. The woman said that no sooner had she ventured into the main store area than one of the female accosted her and demanded the keys to the cashier cage.
“She grabbed me by my hair and started hitting me asking for the key.” Khan said that by this time her colleague, Keron Persaud, was cornered by the three men who started to beat him.
The woman said that one of the bandits had an ice picker while another was armed with a handgun. The young woman said that the bandits duck taped the hands and mouths of both she and Persaud and bundled them into the toilet of the store. She explained that everything happened in about five minutes and it was only when her colleague managed to free his hand that they ran onto the road and were set free by the owner and employees of RRT Enterprise next door.
According to storeowner Ravi Mangar this is the third robbery that has befallen his businesses across the city. He said that the store is understaffed and is currently selling out its stocks since that branch will be closed and relocated to its new location on North Road that is close to completion.
Mangar said that he is very disappointed about what happen but he is thankful that his staffs were not injured. The store is outfitted with surveillance cameras but according to Mangar they were not recording at the time. The man said that his staff would be able to identify the bandits since they did not conceal their identities.
The store does not have a security guard on site but is protected by MMC security service that was promptly at the scene when summoned.
Mangar opined that the robbery was well planned since the woman who came to the store first was there to stake out the location, so that the execution of the nefarious act went with incident.
The police in a release, yesterday, said that they were investigating an armed robbery that occurred at about 14:00hours yesterday, at Gizmos and Gadgets, Regent Road, Bourda, during which two employees were held up and robbed by three men and two women. Two of the men were armed with a handgun and a screwdriver.
Investigations revealed that the five assailants entered the business place on the pretext of purchasing cell phones when they held up cashier Amelia Khan and sales clerk Keron Persaud. They then took away an undisclosed number of cell phones and $136,000 in cash belonging to the company along with a pair of sunglasses and $10,000.00 cash belonging to the two victims.
The robbery comes at a time when the Guyana Police Force has announced plans to beef up security in main shopping areas to root out such incidents. When Kaieteur News visited the police were conducting investigations but up to press time no one was arrested.

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