A man was electrocuted early yesterday morning when he fell on a transformer while attempting to scale a fence, minutes after stealing shoes from the Guyana Stores Limited (GSL).

Police sources have given the dead man’s name as Rondell Greene, of an address in the city. Several efforts to find the man’s relatives yesterday were unsuccessful. His body was taken to the Lyken’s Funeral home and up to press time last evening no one had come forward to claim it.

Contacted yesterday, GSL’s Company Secretary James Deane told Stabroek News that around 6 am, security guards were making checks at the store’s Universal building on Church Street, when they found the man’s lifeless body stuck between the transformer and a pole. Part of the body was resting on the transformer and the immediate area was scorched, Deane said. He added that the guards also noticed a bag outside the nearby fence and subsequent investigations revealed that it contained boots. The police were informed and checks revealed that the store’s stock area was broken into through the roof. Boots were among several items discovered missing.

From all indications, the dead man and others broke into the store, having gained entry through the roof. It is suspected that Greene threw his bag over the fence and was climbing over the fence when he fell and was electrocuted.

Deane yesterday informed that over a three-year period the store has suffered several breakages through the roof. It had stopped for some time and the perpetrators began using the electrical division on Main Street as their access point. Some time last year, he recalled, one of the perpetrators was caught. On another occasion, others were caught red-handed in the garage division but they managed to flee after dropping some of the items they had stolen. He said that the company has lost millions of dollars in goods to burglars over the years.