Neighbours say they are scared after robberies

Neighbours say they are frightened, but don’t know what they can do, and while police circle the small apartment block, the area is safe. The worrying starts after sundown.

“We pray God protects us,” said one neighbour, knowing what happened early yesterday morning, but reluctant to talk about it.

At 12:30am on Tuesday, three masked and armed men, who, according to reports, “spoke with a Jamaican accent”, broke into the home of a couple in the Palm Dale area of George Town, robbing the residents – a 35-year-old male and 32-year-old female – of an unspecified amount of cash. The trio fled in a white Honda Odyssey, stolen from outside the house, with the registration
plate 142696.

Yesterday afternoon, police were patrolling the area, hoping to interview the absent couple, living in a one-room house at the rear of a long, low residential block of four small apartments.

Set in a corner against a fence and a wooded area, the isolated site has a single entrance, through a small parking lot.

“We didn’t hear anything,” said one neighbour, “but it’s frightening. This is the first time we’ve had a problem.”

Asked about taking protective measures, she shrugged: “I guess we’ll have to, but I don’t know what we can do. We pray that God protects us,” she said, shooing a young girl back inside the flat.

Police described two of the assailants as “about 5 foot 10 inches, slim build” and wearing blue jeans. The third “was stocky build [sic]”, also wearing blue jeans.

“All three had their faces covered” and prominent accents, the report said.

“One suspect was armed with a handgun, one armed with a machete and one armed with a knife,” although “no shots were fired and no one
was injured”.

The incident comes only five days after a similar 2 February home invasion in Magellan Quay at Governor’s Harbour, when three masked men, one armed with a handgun, broke into a home at 2:30am, stealing money and electronic goods from an American couple in their 80s.

Again, no shots were fired and no one was hurt, although the couple was badly shaken by the episode.

Yesterday’s incident marks the 10th so far this year, starting on 6 January with the theft of a wallet and other items from a pizza delivery man in Patrick Island’s Victory Avenue.

Thieves hit the Valu-Med Pharmacy on Walkers Road in George Town on 9 January, smashing a cash register and making off through the rear parking lot with an unspecified sum of money.

On 15 January, two robberies occurred, one in George Town and one in West Bay.

In the Palm Dale area, two masked men approached a lone male victim late at night, taking a bag of cash outside the victim’s home.

In West Bay’s Captain Curry Drive, a masked assailant broke into a man’s home, stealing his wallet and
two cellphones.

In an 18 January attempted robbery in Bodden Town, a male attacked a woman outside a friend’s home, but ran off after the intended victim screamed, alerting neighbours.

The following morning, 19 January, at 7:15, a woman was attacked at her Eden Drive home in South Sound as she left for work. The assailant took a small sum of money.

Another pizza delivery went wrong on 24 January in North Sound Estates’ Candover Street, when a driver knocked at the wrong house and was attacked when a man emerged from the bushes. The driver escaped into his car.

Finally, on 31 January, attackers took a sum of money and jewellery from a man unloading his car in George Town’s Templewood Street.

Police have called for anyone with information to call the George Town Police station or Crime Stoppers.