A Non-Pariel, East Coast Demerara (ECD) businesswoman and her daughter-in-law were robbed at gunpoint on Wednesday by two masked men, one armed with a gun.
Monica Abdool, the owner of Monica Supermarket, told the News Room about how the event unfolded and stated that this had been a recurring issue for several years.
In less than three minutes, the two masked men on a motorcycle robbed Monica, her daughter-in-law Dinah and two customers. The incident occurred just after noon.
The men carted off over $500,000 and took all of the victims’ phones.
Monica said the men threatened to kill her and she remains shaken by the ordeal.
“Me was in the cashier area and two masked men come and said: ‘Don’t move and pass everything’.
“One of them had a gun and the other had a bag and I give them everything I had in the cashier part and they said: ‘That is not all.’
“They said you have more and I start to cry and beg them and said I don’t have more,” Monica recounted.
But this is not the first or second time that the businesswoman was robbed.
Monica explained that she has been operating her supermarket and hardware store for the past two decades. From 2012 to now, she and her family have been robbed six times.
“While they robbing me, two boys come in after the rain come down hard and they go to the boys them and they rob them too. They had some phones and cash too and them take that,” Monica explained.
Police arrived shortly after the incident but the men had already escaped.
Despite the quick response from the Police, Monica explained that residents are scared to walk on the road after 6PM due to constant robberies.
So she called for more Police patrols in the area and plans to install security cameras in her business.
“Actually, me gonna just run back my security camera, me can’t able fuh do nothing more and nothing more cannot help me. And when you apply for firearm as business people, 20 years me have business and me cannot get a firearm license,” Monica said.
Meanwhile, her brother-in-law, Nazim Abdool also expressed concerns about the frequent robberies in the area.
“You [does] just lose everything and everything gone and the police them go come yes and find out what you lost when everything done,” Nazim said.
The community remains on edge and hopes for better security measures in the future.
