Police have launched an investigation into an alleged robbery by ‘trunkers’ committed on a West Coast Demerara businessman outside a police station.
Jaiprakash Basdeo of Meten-Meer-Zorg, told Stabroek News that on Tuesday he uplifted $900,000 from a city bank and stopped at the Leonora Police Station to renew the fitness on his vehicle when he was robbed. Basdeo said he had parked his car, licence number PJJ 138, outside the station compound and had left the money in a bag in the car. He said upon his return to the vehicle, he turned the key in the lock but noticed that the lock was broken and that money was gone. Basdeo said he immediately went back into the station and reported the incident.
He said ranks from the station’s Criminal Investigation Department took photographs and uplifted fingerprints from the vehicle but up to yesterday he had not been given an update on the status of the investigations.
When this newspaper contacted Commander of ‘B’ Division Krishna Lakeraj on the issue, he said he was aware of the matter and investigations were ongoing. However, the Commander said they were no unfamiliar fingerprints on the vehicle and from all indications, no signs of burglary to the car and forced entry, as was reported by the businessman.
On Friday last, trunkers made off with $860,000 from a vehicle that belongs to an Inter-American Development Bank employee after reportedly tracing him from a city bank.
Cecil Rajana of 1315 Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara, had left the sum in his vehicle when he parked on Gordon Street, Kitty outside a friend’s house. Rajana had earlier in the day uplifted the money from Demerara Bank and left it in his Pathfinder vehicle, PJJ 4318, during the visit.
According to a source, after he had spent about 30 minutes at the house, Rajana went back to his vehicle to find that one of the windows and the lock on the door had been broken.
Upon seeing this, the man immediately checked for his money but discovered that it was gone. Following investigations police said they believed that Rajana was traced by the trunkers to the Kitty home.
(‘Trunker’ is the name given to a thief who specializes in breaking into locked vehicles. Many gain entry through the trunk, hence the name.)
