Bush Lot hardware store loses $2.7M to robbers

The owners of a hardware store at Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice were shocked when they woke up yesterday morning to discover that their store had been broken into and approximately $2.7M in cash and items stolen.
When Stabroek News visited the scene yesterday morning, Nizamudeen Mohamed was busy repairing a side door to his storage room where the bandits gained entry from.

The door through which the bandits gained entry.
The door through which the bandits gained entry.

Mohammed said that the bandits carted off about $1.5M worth in drills, a sanding machine, car amplifiers, electrical saw, jig saw, portable DVD players and tools.

They also emptied a drawer that contained US$4, 000 and $400,000.
According to him the bandits also stole a pair of his used slippers and removed a few cans and bottles of energy drink from his refrigerator.

This newspaper saw an empty Lucozade bottle and the empty can of RIP energy drink on the floor that was left behind by the bandits.

They also removed the amplifier and other items from the original boxes and stuffed those along with the other items in empty boxes that Mohammed had left outside his store.
He told this newspaper that he and his wife were sleeping in the upper flat of the building and they were not aware that bandits had entered the business place.
His wife went into the store at around 6:45 am yesterday and noticed items missing from the shelves and some scattered on floor.

Not realizing that they had been robbed, he said his wife started to quarrel that he had scattered the items and “left them just like that”

and she started to pack them back.
She then put on the lights and discovered that the drawer where the money was kept was empty and thrown on the floor. Other drawers were also pulled out.

The woman immediately raised an alarm and then made a report to the Fort Wellington Police Station. Ranks arrived at the scene shortly after and conducted investigations. No arrests have so far been made.