Gunmen cart off $2.5M construction site payroll

Jun 29, 2008 News

Pandemonium broke loose at a construction site on Camp Street, Georgetown yesterday, after two gunmen struck, successfully escaping with a weekly payroll for employees amounting to some $2.5M.
When Kaieteur News arrived at the site at which the new CLICO office is being constructed, workers were arguing for their wages, expressing disbelief at the brazen daylight robbery.
Eyewitnesses say the men entered the construction site via an adjoining unfinished fence that separated it from the Club Blue Note. The gate to the nightclub was said to be open at the time of the robbery.
According to reports, the employees scattered in every direction when the gunmen entered the compound, but the bandits grabbed two employees and demanded to be shown where the ‘pay office’ was.
According to some employees, an office in the unfinished CLICO building was used as a weekly pay office for employees who were attached to different worksites of the B. Shivnauth Construction Company.
An employee said that one gunman rushed to him and, pointing a handgun at his head, shouted: “Don’t seh nutthing! Wheh de office deh?”
The construction worker said that when he failed to answer, the man pushed him aside and held up a painter, who in fear for his life led him to the office on the ground floor of the unfinished building.
At the door of the office, the painter was instructed to call for those inside. The people heeded the call and opened the door, expecting to see the painter alone.
The bandits then held the four inside the office at the time and robbed them of the entire payroll.
By this time most of the employees had scattered into the street, while some were too dumbstruck to leave the compound.
The bandits reportedly made their escape in a blue car that was parked a short distance from the crime scene.
In the ensuing melee, Police arrested one employee, who witnessed the entire robbery but, for some mysterious reason, refused to give the Police a statement when requested.
Another employee suggested that it was an inside job, since the gunmen promptly asked to be led to the pay office when they entered the compound.
Another opined that the men had traced the vehicle that transported the cash from a location in Kingston, and pounced once the cash was secured in the office.
Police are investigating the matter. (Alex Wayne)

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