Efforts to evade masked men who were seemingly waiting to carry out a heist were unsuccessful on Saturday for a 46-year-old businesswoman of Proctor Road, Kara-Kara, Linden.
In a statement, Police Headquarters noted that at about 19:55 hours two unidentifiable males, one armed with a gun and the other with a knife, relieved the businesswoman of $350,000 along with US$300 and a bag valued at $25, 000.
According to reports, the woman who owns J & R Elite Variety Store, closed her business at about 19:10 hours and went to Rainbow City to pick up a bar-b-que and then went to get Chinese food accompanied by her 12-year-old daughter.
While she was driving down the street to her house, she observed a tall, slim-built male dressed in a light-colored long sleeve shirt and dark-colored pants.
Police said he was wearing a light-coloured toque covering his entire face.
A second man described as short and slim-built was dressed in a black long sleeve jersey, long black jeans with a black cloth covering his entire face where only his eyes were visible.
They approached the vehicle as the woman attempted to open her garage which is operated by a remote.
“She began to get suspicious, and she immediately locked her vehicle, and the tall male then began to knock on her window on the driver’s side.
“The victim realized at that stage that the men were trying to rob her and she began to frantically honk on her vehicle horn. She reversed her vehicle out of the street while the male suspect was holding onto her door handle, but she hit a culvert, which is about 50 meters away from her garage, which caused her vehicle to come to a halt, while the said male fell into a drain,” Police said.
The other suspect came to her door and began to bang continuously on her window with what appeared to be a black hand gun, which caused the glass of her vehicle to shatter, and he pushed his hand inside the SUV, opened the door and pointed the gun to her face, saying “pass de money”.
The suspect who fell in the drain came out and started to hit on the front passenger side door window with a brick, shattering it. He then pointed a knife at her daughter’s face, waving it.
The victim claimed she got scared and handed over her black handbag containing her money to the suspect, after being fearful for her daughter and her life.
The suspects grabbed her handbag and made good their escape on foot down the street.
The police were immediately summoned and while canvassing the area in the vicinity of Cinderella City, the police saw the two males that fitted the description given by the victim.
Upon seeing the police vehicle, the two suspects managed to evade the police by escaping through a dark alleyway.
CCTV footage was extracted from the victim’s security cameras and is being reviewed by investigators.
