Last night an elderly couple was terrorized by a gang of armed thugs who invaded their home in Belize City. This afternoon police charged two men for last night's incident and we'll tell you about the arrests in a bit but first to the victims, they are 62-year-old Sylvia Vernon and 74 year old Ismael Vernon Sr. They both have been fisher folk for the past 44 years but nothing could have prepared them for the terror that was visited upon them in their home last night. Keith Swift has the story.
Sylvia Vernon, Burglary Victim
"That was a terrible terrible experience for me because I really don't know what is wrong with those young people. What is wrong with them, I really don't know. That sent me to the hospital because I suffer from diabetes, from pressure (hypertension), and arthritis; I am half cripple and I still work. That is what hurts me the because I could get out there and I could throw my line and catch a fish and come in here to sell it to buy my medication and these people will come into my hone to try and destroy me and my husband."
You can tell that 62 year old Sylvia Vernon is frustrated, maybe a little bit scared, but above all she is angry......and with good reason. Last night she was inside her Tibruce Street home with her 74-year-old husband Ismael Sr. when a man approached her door with a pink box in his hand.
Sylvia Vernon,
"The young man came, he had the box, and he said he brought it from my son Jun (Junior), because that is how they call him. The box was about this size and it had a tape in the middle of it. The box looked pinkish but the tape on top was gray. So I motioned my hands to take the box but he didn't put the box in my hand so I told him to put it against the locker. Then he asked me about my husband and said he heard Grandpa was sick. I said yes, he is right in there with his foot swollen. He asked me if he could see him (my husband) and I said yes, sure because, as I told you, he didn't look like nobody to say I would have to be afraid of."
Mrs. Vernon would later realize that she was wrong because after letting in her visitor, he turned and put a gun to her.
Sylvia Vernon,
"He swung around and the next thing I know, the gun was in my chest. He told me to go back inside. My daughter was on the verandah and he told her to go inside. I asked him why is he doing this, what are the reasons. He told me not to worry and he wouldn't do me anything. I told him that whatever he sees in here that he wants, he can take but just don't hurt me and my husband because he 'halfa 'and me 'halfa.'
The intruder didn't hurt the Vernons because he and his accomplice were more concerned with ransacking the Vernon household. And to possibly to make the search more complete, three more thugs entered the house. We don't know what they were looking for but we do know what they found.
Sylvia Vernon,
"When I looked three more came into the door and they had on their masks. The first two didn't have on masks but I can't tell you I know them, I don't know them at all. This is the first time in my life I've seen those persons. They came and were around and they went into the back room and they were hauling down everything. Then they came back into my room and they saw my purse which I usually take to the caye and its in there I have my husband's gun."
And while three men searched the lower flat of the Vernon residence, upstairs Vernon's daughter and her family were held at gunpoint by another. The men later escaped in this Suzuki Vitara which is now parked and under police watch at the corner of George and Berkeley Streets. Desiree Vernon is still shaken because she was the first to see the intruder.
Desiree Vernon,
"We had no idea that the guys had weapons or anything so we just let them in and the way the guy was talking to us was like somebody that knows us."
Keith Swift,
What did they do to you and your family?
Desiree Vernon,
"They just had us sit in the hall in front of the TV and keep quiet and not to do anything because if anybody like made any silly move anything, then they would have had to do something. The evening was chilly and I felt kind of chilly at first but at the moment when the guys were up there I felt like I was sweating. Its the kind of thing you see on TV but you don't really expect it to happen to you in life."
And while her daughter is shaken, this afternoon as Sylvia Vernon vividly recounted the timeline of last night's terror to me in her living room, and in the same chair where just hours earlier she was held at gunpoint - her anger was apparent.
Sylvia Vernon,
"Right here they put me to sit down when I told them to take whatever they want in the house. But you see those bottles that I have there, I was already watching one of those bottles because if they had put their hands on any of my things which I work hard for, one of them would have killed me because I would have whapped out one of them with one of those pints, the same bottles you see there. Because I think it is a very hard thing, a very hard thing. It is really hard for you to be in your home, struggling. They don't know."
The men made off with the couple's Smith and Wesson.38 revolver and two cell phones. The two cell phones were found on 21
year old Brenton Smith Lewis who has been charged with aggravated burglary and handling stolen goods. 28-year-old Eustace Andrews has also been charged with aggravated burglary. None of them were granted bail and they are due back in court on December 12th. If the name Brenton Smith Lewis sounds familiar, it is because earlier this year he walked away from murder charges in connection with the death of Marlon Budd.
