Farmer chopped trying to stop goat thieves

A man was chopped to his face and hands after he tried to fight off thieves who were trying to steal his goats on the Montrose, East Coast, Demerara (ECD), seawall around 3 pm yesterday.

Injured is 42-year-old, Rudolph Mayers of Vryheid’s Lust, ECD, who was dealt several chops with a cutlass by thieves who were about to steal seven of his goats. He was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital by his wife, Sharon Ifill, after the incident.

His wife told this newspaper that her son was looking after the goats at the time of the incident.

She said her son called her and told her that two men, who are regular goat thieves, were chasing away seven of their goats.

Ifill said she was at home with her baby and she called the Sparendaam Police Station and her husband, who was in a bus heading to town, and told him to “come quick” because the men were going with their goats.

Her husband then turned back and went to the seawall where he saw the men chasing seven of the goats away. “He asked them why they chasing way he goat and one of them pull out a cutlass and start chopping he… he said ‘you go out me way’ and he start chopping he. My husband din had anything he was going to save our goats,’’ Ifill told this newspaper.

She said no police had responded to the scene following her report that the goats were being stolen. She called the station again after she learned that her husband had been attacked and this time, she said, the police responded.

Ifill also stated that she was uncertain as to whether the men took the goats with them, or whether the police apprehended them, since she took her husband to the hospital immediately after.

Ifill also stated that the men are regular goat thieves in the area and everyday about three or four of their animals are missing. The thieves would take the goats to a bushy area on the seawall where vehicles would go and uplift them.

The police are conducting further investigations in the matter.