Overseas-based Guyanese robbed of cash and jewellery
Guyana Chronicle
September 30, 2003
Woman on mission to bury her mother now has to ask other relatives for financial assistance
AN overseas-based Guyanese, who was on a mission to bury her mother, was attacked by bandits yesterday morning and robbed of cash and jewellery totalling some $800,000.
Ms Constance Legall, who returned to Guyana last Saturday to make funeral arrangements for her recently deceased mother, also lost some very important documents during the attack.
According to Ms Legall’s son, George Legall, two unmasked bandits entered the Princes Street house at about 2:30 hrs yesterday by removing a few louvre panes from a front window. At that time, seven of the eight family members including two small children were all sleeping.
Legall said his mother was the only one who was not sleeping at that time, but after she realised the bandits were already in the home she remained quiet, as they demanded at gunpoint.
The son recounted that the two men went to the bedroom of the house and “wake up every body and put all ah we fuh lie down pun one another and cover we up with a sheet”.
He said the gunmen told them that they were paid to kill everybody in the house if they did not get enough money. His mother then pleaded to them to take all they wanted but leave her children alone.
During the robbery, the two bandits spotted a video camera and began discussing whether they should take it, George Legall recounted. He said that the men then told his mother that they would not take the camera because they knew she would have to use it to record her mother’s funeral service to take back to Canada.
This disclosure amazed the family and suggested to them that the bandits were well informed about their recent loss and about other events in the family.
The bandits stripped everyone of their jewellery and other valuables. They then requested that the family should take off all the lights to prevent them (the bandits) from being identified by neighbours, who may have been alerted.
According to George Legall, the robbery adds a sense of desolation to the already grieving family. He explained that his mother would now have to seek financial assistance from other relatives abroad to proceed with the funeral arrangements since the bandits took all the money she had for that purpose.
It was not clear how the bandits left the area. A few persons said that they had noticed a white car leaving the area shortly after the robbery was committed. (Jaime Hall)