Bandits smash minibus of family who refused to open door for them

Jan 15, 2024 News

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– tell them: “yall still have to spend money”

By Shervin Belgrave

Kaieteur News- Three masked cutlass bandits on Sunday morning used a piece of “six by six” wood to smash the windscreens and windows of a family’s minibus parked in their yard at Annandale New Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara (ECD), when they refused to open the door of their home to let them in.

The bandits, according to the victims, were angry for leaving empty-handed and reportedly shouted as they left “Yall gon pay the penalty fuh not opening the door, yall gon still ga spend money”.

Sunday’s attack on the family of three took place around 05:00hrs and is the second in a matter of weeks. During the first attack on January 3, 2024 the bandits managed to cart away hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, jewels and other valuables after breaking into the family’s home through a window but were unable to rob the victims a second time.

Speaking with Kaieteur News on Monday one of the family members, Jennifer Sahadeo said that she, her husband “Danny” and their seven-year-old son had only moved into the new housing scheme at Annandale on December 3, last year. The Ministry of Housing had recently granted them a plot of land there and she and her husband worked hard to build themselves a wooden house so that they could move in for the Christmas.

They spent the holiday season happily in their new home but in the new year fell prey to a cutlass gang that has reportedly been terrorising and robbing the residents of the Annandale New Housing Scheme for months now. “The first time dem attack them come around quarter to three (02:45 hrs)” Sahadeo said while recounting the first time they were robbed by the cutlass bandits.  Sahadeo recalled that they were asleep with the fan on when her husband was awakened by the sound of their door being “slammed”.

He went out to investigate and caught one of the bandits in their home opening the door for an accomplice to come in.  The woman’s husband reportedly attempted to grab the bandit but he slipped away and escaped with the accomplice and threatened to return and kill the family for interrupting his heist.

After they were gone Sahadeo noticed that the men had stolen cash and other valuables from their home. “The first losses was $72,000 (cash), $500,000 worth in jewellery ma son own and my own, ma phone and the house keys them”, Sahadeo told Kaieteur News while adding that the men also stole some $20,000 in medication.

The family changed their locks, repaired a window that the bandits had broken to enter and fortified their home to prevent another home invasion. Twelve days later on Sunday January 14, the cutlass bandits returned. Sahadeo recounted, “The Chair in the Verandah ah hear the chair mek a sound like when someday foot jam it and it kick way suh a wake up now and a seh Danny Danny (her husband) boy get up like them thief man come back again.”

Danny then rushed out of their room and put on the lights before pulling a window curtain located close to Verandah. There he met face to face with one of the cutlass bandits already attempting to break their window open. The woman’s husband reportedly confronted the bandits, telling them that they had already stolen everything from him and asked “why did they come again”.

Sahadeo recalled that the bandits replied by demanding that her husband open the door and let them in.

Her husband refused and told his wife to call the police and it was then that the bandits started threatening to shoot the family through the Window and force their way in.

Sahadeo said that when she heard the bandits threatening to shoot, she became scared and ran to grab her traumatized seven-year-old son instead of calling the police. The bandits reportedly continued their demands for them to open the door but the family reportedly resisted for some time before the bandits decided to attempt to break down the door themselves.

Scared that the men would eventually enter and slaughter them all, Sahadeo said that she and Danny started screaming loudly “Thief, Thief”.

Luckily their screams awakened neighbours who began raising the alarm that someone was being robbed. Persons began leaving their homes to rescue the family. Sahadeo said that when the bandits realised this, they aborted their mission but not before using a piece of wood to damage their window frames and smash the windscreens of their bus, the main source of income for their family.

“While dem a lash-up the bus, dem a say ‘well iyuh go pay the penalty, if iyuh na go open the door, iyuh ga fuh spend”, Sahadeo said as she recounted the horror of an ordeal that reportedly lasted some 15 minutes.

The men then scaled the fence and escaped on some bicycles before neighbours arrived at the family’s home. Sahadeo and her husband reported the matter to police but are now scared to live in their own home that they worked hard to build. “This na mek sense that the government give we a land and we struggle fuh come and live here and now we can’t live in peace, we gah fuh scared and we gah fuh run from awe house”, a teary eyed Sahadeo told Kaieteur News.

As Kaieteur News took shots of the family’s damaged bus that will cost thousands of dollars to repair, other residents came over and said that the cutlass gang has been terrorizing the new housing scheme for months. They called for police to set-up an outpost in the area because it is becoming the gang’s hunting ground.

 

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• Annandale New Housing Scheme, Cutlass bandits, Danny, Jennifer Sahadeo, Residents

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