Latest update January 7th, 2025 4:10 AM
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Bandits hold blind victims at gunpoint after invading Institute
– Take laptop, but return cash
The Guyana Society for the Blind
Four masked bandits invaded the Guyana Society for the Blind on Tuesday night and held six visually impaired persons along with the only sighted individual at gunpoint before stealing a laptop computer belonging to the non-governmental organization.
The incident happened around 22:00 hrs at Lot 44 High Street, Werk-en-rust. The bandits gun-butted a volunteer, Selwyn Jacobs, and placed their blind victims to lie on the floor as they demanded cash and other valuables.
After ransacking several offices and rooms at the Institute, they escaped with one laptop. While leaving the premises, the men returned the victims’ cash.
According to information received, two blind persons were removing clothes from a line outside of the building when the four men ambushed them and forced them to lie on the ground.
The bandits then made their way into the building through an open door and held up Jacobs who was sitting on a chair. The men reportedly threw him on the floor and gun-butted him while demanding the keys to the other sections of the building.
President of the Society, Ganesh Singh, said that he was not at the property when the incident occurred, but claimed that Jacobs had informed him that one of the bandits threatened to shoot him (Jacobs), but one of his accomplices told him not to.
Kaieteur News was told that the bandits then went and searched the other sections of the building and demanded that their blind victims lie on the floor. The persons who were at the Institute at the time were those attending the University of Guyana and needed a place to stay.
A couple of other visually impaired persons, who heard what was happening, reportedly locked themselves in a room. The bandits did not see them. After the men got their hands on the laptop, they left.
“They only took the laptops and there were other things there. These persons had smart phones and so, but they didn’t take them…and when they (bandits) realized that the victims only had a couple hundreds of dollars, they returned the money,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, he expressed his disappointment with the response he received from the Guyana Police Force. He indicated that after the robbery, he made several calls to the Brickdam Police Station but no cops showed up. He even called to follow-up with ranks but they still did not show up.
According to Singh, it was only when one of the persons at the Institute called a detective on his personal phone that persons showed up. A crime scene rank then went to the scene yesterday afternoon to take statements.
No one has been arrested as yet.
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