They may have thought that the hard rain on Monday night would have given them cover, but they were wrong. Around eight twenty, three burglars broke into the Fisheries Department on Princess Margaret Drive. The trio managed to make it upstairs of the building but the noise they made was detected by security guard Ronnie Castillo who had sought shelter from the downpour.
Castillo carefully made his way from the rear of the compound to go and investigate but he was met on the second floor by two of the assailants. The masked men, did not speak English well and were armed. They rushed Castillo, put a gun to his head and told him not to move. They tied his hands behind his back with a telephone wire and put him to lie face down on the bathroom floor. The men then grabbed the keys for the front building.
Two of the culprits then left the room while the other stayed behind. Castillo says it was not until one hour later that he realized he was alone, freed his up his hands and called the police. A check of the building revealed that the men had broken into four of the offices and stole three nine-millimeter pistols from a safe.
The burglars had gained access into the building by opening a door to the ground floor and then breaking a glass door to get to the second floor. Police are now trying to determine whether the break in was an inside job, specifically, they are investigating the possibility that the burglars may have had access to a key that was used to get into the building.
It’s notable that our archives show that in December of 2005, two men broke into the Fisheries Department, tied up the security guard with duct tape, and fired two shots at another security guard.
