A Bourda Market stallholder lost more than $2 million dollars in cash and groceries after his stall was burgled sometime in the wee hours of Monday morning.
Nardeo Persaud said he secured his ‘Bourda Green’ stall around 4 pm on Sunday and left for home, where he was contacted early Monday morning by another stallholder, who informed him of the break-in.
Persaud’s losses include 20 cases of cheese, at least six cases of sausages and a large quantity of powdered milk, cornflakes, ketchup and toothpaste along with US$500 currency and $80,000. In total, he estimated his losses at over $2 million.
When contacted, Chairman of the Mayor and City Council’s Market and Public Health Committee Ranwell Jordan told Stabroek News that he was aware of the break-in but had not directly spoken with the city constabulary or the stall holder. “I am aware that security needs to be beefed up. We are in the process of running wires so we can put better lighting in the market and increase security in the area,” he revealed.
Lorna, the stallholder who discovered the burglary, said that on Monday morning at around 5:40, she went to the market as usual and found the top half of Persaud’s stall open and the padlocks on the ground. She immediately contacted him.
Persaud told this newspaper that he hurriedly left his Canal Number One home and rushed to the Bourda Market, where he discovered the doors of his stall opened and the six padlocks he had used to secure it on the ground. It is believed that the burglar(s) used a nipper to cut open the padlocks in order to gain entry.
“This is not the first time that this is happening, but it is the first time it has happened to me, others have not reported it but I am not letting this go like that,” stressed the distraught Persaud.
“If you came here yesterday you would have seen the disarray and mess this place was in, it is in a better condition now because I cleaned it up,” he added.
The thieves ransacked the place and had time enough to search and choose what they wanted, he lamented.
He said he made a report at the Alberttown Police Station, which responded but he noted that the constabulary office was not cooperating with investigators.
