Berbice family fights off bandits, thwarts robbery

A Corentyne Berbice family of four on Thursday morning was forced to defend themselves when armed bandits broke into their Block 4, Tain, Corentyne Berbice home.

The homeowner, 51-year-old Hemraj Pattiram said he was awoken at approximately 02:30hrs by loud sounds coming from the bottom flat of his two storey house.

Pattiram, who is a taxi driver, said he along with his wife and two sons approached the inside steps which lead to the lower flat of the home and began hitting the walls in an effort to scare away the intruders.

But the bandits had already gained access to the lower flat of the house by removing the louvres from a window in the kitchen.

They broke the door to the inside step with a crowbar and a piece 4×4 wood.

“After they come into the house to come upstairs there was another door from the inside step when it wasn’t opening by wrenching it, them bruk it up into pieces,” he explained.

Pattiram added that he and his son began to throw items down the step to block the intruders.

“But them still continue, them had a gun with them because I hear the gun snap three times. After then we still try to fight back so they couldn’t come upstairs easily, then one of them say ‘Look all yuh kill that f#@$ing big man,” the taxi driver recalled.

Pattiram recalled that the bandits retreated for about two minutes but then returned and tried to make their way up the steps again but this time the family threw a three-piece sofa set down the stairs to block their path.

“Me seh to myself I ain’t gonna allow them to come upstairs once I am there. Is either I kill them or them kill me,” Pattiram said.

He said the place was dark and as such, he is unsure of how many men broke into the house.

Pattiram said while this was happening he contacted the Police at the Whim Police Station.

The bandits managed to escape with a 40 pennyweight silver band and a 60 pennyweight gold chain that they stole from the bottom flat of the house.

The Police arrived about fifteen minutes later but by then the bandits had already fled the scene. The matter is currently under investigation.