A Regent Street store employee is now on the run after he stole over $100,000 from the handbag of his boss yesterday morning.
Halema Rodrigues, the owner of Halema’s Fashions which located at Lot 104 Regent Street, told Stabroek News that she returned to her business place sometime after 10 am and realised that the suspect who was employed as a handyman for the past three weeks, was nowhere to be found. She said when she enquired from other employees, she was told that he had left for the washroom two hours before she arrived. Rodrigues said she instinctively rushed to the back of the store where the money was, only to find the $112,000 she left in her handbag missing. “So I went and looked at the camera and see [name omitted] going into my bag” she added.
When questioned, she said, the other two employees who were present at the time of the theft, explained that the suspect had offered to sweep the back of the store, where the cupboard which contained the handbag was. During the two-minute video which this newspaper saw, the suspect, clad in an orange jersey and 3/4 Bermuda pants, used a table to block the view of the other employees at the front to the store and then proceeded to the cupboard. He was seen pushing his hand in the cupboard and then into his crotch, all the while peering to the front to ensure that no one saw him.
The businesswoman said that yesterday was not the first time her business suffered at the hand of an employee.
She said last year another employee was jailed for a similar offence. Furthermore, she said that more than $5,000 went missing from her bag on Monday. However, the culprit was never caught, since the person had pushed the camera towards a wall. “That is why I make sure I fixed all the camera today before I left,” she said, adding, “only to see him stealing my money.”
Immediately a report was made to the police, who launched a search for the suspect after viewing the video footage.
Although the police visited the Sophia home of the suspect last evening, the woman said the suspect is yet to be arrested.
