Bandits posing as Ministry of Finance employees rob hotdog vendor with toy gun

Sep 23, 2025 News

– nabbed hours later with stolen cash, jewellery

Kaieteur News – Two men pretending to be employees with the Ministry of Finance robbed a hotdog vendor and her grandmother of a large sum of cash and jewellery on Monday at Huist Dieren Public Road, Essequibo Coast, Region Two.

Bandits posing as Ministry of Finance employees rob hotdog vendor with toy gun

The stolen cash and gold rings along with the illegal quantity of marijuana recovered from the suspects

However, they did not get to enjoy their loot after police responded promptly and arrested them hours later. The victim, Andrea Singh, age 30, told police that two men wearing surgical masks turned up at her home where she lives with her family around 13:30hrs calling for “inside”. Her 83-year-old mother Samaria Harichand was in the kitchen and while she was sitting in a hammock under a shed inside her yard with her one-year-old baby.

Singh responded to the men and they asked her if a pensioner was living with her to which she responded yes. The men then said that they were employees with the Ministry of Finance and requested to see her grandmother’s identification card. Singh claimed that while communicating with the men she started to become suspicious that they might be lying because they had a strong scent of alcohol and cigarettes and one of them asked for water.

Brushing the suspicious aside she gave him the water but then things took a sudden turn when they both rushed up to her and placed a gun to her head. They forced her into the house at gunpoint. One of them held onto her grandmother while the other took her into her bedroom and demanded that she give them money.

Fearful for her life she allowed him to relieve her of four gold rings worth 250,000 and a gold band valued $200,000. Singh also handed over GYD $1,500,000 cash and another US$1,500 in cash which she had in a pipe in her bedroom. The victim then took her into the kitchen area and went into another room to look for more valuables but Singh started screaming so they retreated and ran away.

The robbery was subsequently reported to the police. Investigators said that hours later they received some key information that led them to the suspect. At around 12:14 hrs. an anti-crime patrol unit went to an abandon house at Huist Dieren Public Road, Essequibo Coast, where they found one of the suspects, Alim Fareed a 39-year-old a laborer of lot 155 Little Indian, East Corentyne, Berbice, Region Six hiding between some bushes with a haversack.
A police rank took possession of the haversack and found GYD$ 700,000, US$1,570 and 230 Euro currency all cash inside. They also found a black plastic bag containing marijuana.

He was arrested and reportedly admitted to committing both the robbery and having marijuana in his possession. The other suspect identified as 27-year-old Nicholas Christopher of Lot 76 village East Corentyne Berbice, Region Six was found close by.

He too admitted to robbing the hotdog vendor after handing over GYD291,000 cash to police along with a sum of US currency. Police questioned them some more at the Aurora Police Station and they told the investigators that they committed the robbery with a toy gun. One of them, Nicholas Christopher, even took detectives to an area where he hid the fake weapon. According to police he pointed them to a black toy gun which he claimed he hid in some bushes. Police were also able to recover the clothes they wore to commit the crime. In a pair of trousers police found two of the hotdog vendor’s gold rings. The two suspects remain in custody as investigations continue.

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Berbice, Essequibo Coast, Ministry of Finance, police, toy gun

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