Three bandits, armed with a long gun and a cutlass, attacked a family at Belvedere Reef on the Corentyne around 3.15 am yesterday and made of with about $500,000 in cash and antique gold jewellery.

The bandits dealt Knaipa Naidu, 61, several blows with the butt of the gun. They also used a bed sheet to tie him up, along with his son Dhankumar Naidu, 34, called “Black Joe” before carting off their loot.

Naidu said he was sleeping in his hammock in the yard to enjoy the breeze when he heard “talking” in Dhankumar’s room in the lower flat of the building and noticed that the light under the house was off.

He said he got up to investigate and saw the three unmasked bandits tearing a bed sheet and tying Dhankumar to the bed. One of the bandits was holding a torchlight and Naidu said he grabbed his hand with the light and pointed it to the bandit’s face.

He said the bandit then hit him with the gun butt in his ribs and they then tied his feet to the bed. He said they were attempting to tie his hands but he put them voluntarily behind his back.

He said one of the bandits remained in the room with them while the other two proceeded to attack his wife, Devi Naidu, 57, who was preparing to cook on her fireside in the yard for another son who works at the sugar estate.

The bandits held a cutlass to Devi’s neck and ordered her to go upstairs and hand over the money and jewellery. “They mek me too take out everything from the dresser drawers and said people tell them me gat more gold,” she said.

They also stripped her of her wedding band, which she said she had never removed since she got married 38 years ago. While all this was happening, her two grandsons, aged ten and seven years old hid under the bed.

The bandits then took Devi back downstairs and pushed her in the room with Naidu and Dhankumar and made good their escape through her backyard. (Shabna Ullah)