According to the statistics, burglaries were down last year, but this year the criminals seem to have started out with a bang. Between the very end of last month and the first few days of this month, there has been a rash of burglaries in Belize City. Today I found out about one tenacious thief who was determined to get into a popular local eatery.
George Hemmans, Co-Manager- Salty Dog Restaurant
“If the patrol would be within maybe let say half an hour or so around those business places, it would probably help to slow down the break-ins into businesses and that sort of thing. But it is very hard my dear. Unless you can afford a twenty four hour security guard on your business that is the only way I think is going to help to protect you.”
If you do not succeed then try, try and try again. That is what one burglar may have been thinking in his desperate attempt to break into the Salty Dog Restaurant at the corner of Dean Streets and Euphrates Avenue but the several attempts he made did not go unnoticed. All the noise did catch the attention of one alert neighbor.
George Hemmans,
“He heard a noise and he came to his window and looked and at first he said he did not see anything and then he saw an individual coming over the fence on the west side there. He walked across the street and stand up at the
corner. Standing up at the corner I guess he must have said well I cannot succeed with the back and so let me try somewhere else.”
The burglar tried to get in by cutting open the wire mesh on the back burglar bar door but it proved to difficult for the desperate burglar. He would finally gained access through the front glass door but once inside it did not take long before he was caught.
George Hemmans,
“They had busted the lock off the grill door and that is one access. Now the way the glass door, the way it was it is still a puzzled to my mind how they opened up that lock. They did something to the lock and opened it and that’s the way they got entry. They tried the backdoor, they could not succeed in getting into the back door so they went to the front. So all this while the culprit thought that he was getting away and nobody was seeing him somebody was seeing him and what he was doing. So when he entered the building this is when the guy called the police.
Nothing was taken. Again he did not have a chance to take anything because I guess the neighbor had his timing precise and the policemen had their timing precise so that when he came in, all he had was about two to three minutes and the counter threw down a cash pan while in his search but he could not find anything monetary wise, we do not actually leave money in the night time. So actually what he did is he went to the cooler and took out some beers and in the process of taking out beer, I guess this is when the thief probably saw the policemen because what he did with the beer he took them and throw them in the garbage bin down at the side he never got a chance to get away with anything.”
The burglar who was caught inside the establishment remains in police custody pending charges.
Police have that one person detained but have not brought any charges yet.
