An armed gang last Friday morning invaded a Tucville, Georgetown house and after tying up the occupants and pointing guns at two young children, escaped with millions in jewellery and other valuables.
Up to press time last evening, police were still looking for the perpetrators of the home invasion, which lasted about 30 minutes.
Speaking to Stabroek News at her Lot 972 Edun Street, Tucville home yesterday, a still terrified Vidya Ranjee said she believed her house was under surveillance before the attack as the men, armed with guns and crowbars, arrived hours after a male relative left.
Ranjee and her husband have been operating a dredge in Region Eight for about five years now and only moved to Tucville two months ago to allow their children, aged five and ten, to attend school.
The woman recounted that around 2 am, she was awakened by a strange noise and when she turned she saw a head at the door and the person quickly pulled back. Her room was dark, so she was unable to make out who the person was but knew it was a strange male.
“I was like ‘oh gosh.’ I panicked because I realized at the time that it wasn’t somebody from the house because no male was here at the time,” she said, while adding that she, her aunt and her children were the only occupants of the house. The five-year-old was sleeping with her, while the other child and the aunt were in a nearby bedroom.
Realizing that bandits were in the house, “ah push meh hand out the bed and just press send on my phone,” she recalled, her face still streaked with fear. She said that while she was attempting to pull her son towards her, the men entered her bedroom along with her aunt and older son. She said that based on her count, six bandits were in her house.
Her aunt, Neisha Bacchus said she was awakened by the sound of a wardrobe opening. She said that she got up to close the door and “there was a man in front of me.” She said that she asked the man what he was doing there and he instructed her to be quiet.
“The lil boy [Ranjee’s eldest son] turn and tell me ‘auntie don’t seh nothing, don’t give them hard time, they gon kill you,’” she recalled, adding that shortly after that she was kicked in the side. She along with the child was taken into the other bedroom with Ranjee.
According to Ranjee, they were all instructed to lie on the bed facedown. Thereafter, the men used the sling from a hammock, which was in another room, to tie them up. She said her hand, her mouth and her feet were tied up.
She recalled that the men kept asking for the gold, money and diamonds. “I told them I don’t have anything; that I have a handbag in my closet let them check for it, that is all I have and I have some jewellery on the vanity,” she added. The woman said that although the men found the bag, they still kept asking for more valuables.
Threatened to abduct child
“I seh we don’t have anything more, we don’t have anything more,” she added, noting that the men kept asking for the guns and the safe. “I seh we don’t have any safe and yet at the same time they were telling me to shut up,” she said, noting that one of them was pointing a gun to her head.
The men were apparently convinced that there was a safe somewhere in the house as they started to rip educational charts from the walls, thinking that they were being used to conceal a safe. It was at that point that the bandits snatched the younger child and threatened to take him away if their demands were not met. “Somehow I just free my hands and I scrambled him around he waist and I pull he up under me and seh ‘no, you can’t do dat, believe you me, we don’t have anything,’” the woman said.
Another man armed with a crowbar stood over her and threatened to kill them if she did not reveal the location of the gold and money, according to Ranjee. She said that she repeatedly told the men that they had nothing and begged that no one be hurt. At one point, a gun was placed to one of the children’s heads.
Ranjee said the bandits eventually took $2.5 million in gold jewellery, between $15,000 and $20,000 cash and clothing and other items. She added that the men took some liquor and non alcoholic beverages from the bar on the bottom flat. They emptied one of the children’s school bag and packed the bottles inside.
Afterward, even though it sounded like the men had left, she instructed her aunt not to move and when she was certain that the bandits had gone she hollered for the neighbours. Although the men ransacked the rooms, neighbours had been unaware of what was happening.
Ranjee said the men were definitely watching them, while noting that her husband left about two weeks ago to tend to their business. She said the plan was for her to remain with the children for some time so they could settle into school. Thereafter, she would have joined her husband.
“I feel that these people have to really get strong… and put their foot down on crime because is only recently I had a fellow business associate that get robbed—Roger Hinds—and then a family friend who was shot and robbed and lost his kidney,” she said.
She is of the opinion that that miners are being targeted but could not say if it was one gang attacking them.
“If the police don’t put their foot down hard about this, apparently we business people will have to form some sort of organisation to ease these criminals and ketch them,” Ranjee added.
She said her driver was the first on the scene and a report was immediately made at the East La Penitence Police Station.
