Two  men are in police custody following an armed robbery on a Linden businessman while he was in a boat crossing the Demerara River on Thursday.

Businessman Rudolph Sinclair was on his way home shortly before midnight on Thursday when he was attacked. He told Stabroek News he was in one of Chester’s boats along with the captain, boat conductor and two young men.  As the boat reached the middle of the river the two young men attacked him. “I just see deh man pull out a gun and he started attacking me. He keep lashing me in meh face with de gun and I was fighting back,” he said.

As he wrestled with his assailant the other man attacked him from behind choking him as he relieved him of his gold chains valued in excess of $800,000.

“I keep fighting with dem and then they start to try to tek off me bands and rings dah is when I seh –all ah we gon gaff uh dead here tonight,  cause I de mean dem din getting me rest a stuff,” he told this newspaper.

Sinclair said as he wrestled with more vigour, the men seemed to tire, and since by that time the boat had landed on the Mackenzie shore they then made good their escape.

All along the captain and conductor of the boat did not intervene out of the fear that someone might have got shot.

Stabroek News understands that no one was in the vicinity of the landing at the time, but an alarm was raised by the boat captain, conductor and Sinclair. However, by that time the two robbers were already out of sight. Later the same night the men returned to the boat landing and threatened to kill the captain and his conductor if they told anyone about the incident.

Sinclair said that he and the other occupants of the boat knew the men, which was what led to their arrest yesterday. According to him he received word that the two had been seen at the Wisroc junction awaiting transportation to go into the interior. Police ranks were alerted and the men were captured. They did not have the gold chains in their possession at the time.