Alba Luz Lopez is a scrap metal dealer and by dint of profession, she’s a formidable woman. But she’s also a woman who deals in cash – and she’s been targeted by criminals many times. That’s why yesterday she’d had enough and decided to stand up to an armed male robber who was wielding a gun. But as the would be robber found out, don’t bring plastic to a woman who deals in metal.
Jacqueline Godwin,
And is it true that your mom told the gunman to go ahead and shoot?
Abner Lopez, Witness to Holdup
“Yes, that is yes that is what she told him, she told him to shoot but he never had the heart to shoot.”
For eleven years thirty nine year old Alba Luz Lopez has been doing business on Partridge Street where she either buys or collects scrap metal. So when two young men showed up at the establishment just before eleven on Monday morning claiming that they had copper for sale the business woman did not suspect anything unusual. That is until a gun was pulled. But this hardworking mother who has been robbed five times and had a machete placed to her throat says she had enough.
Alba Luz Lopez, Victim of Hold Up
“He says to give him the money or I will shot you. I told him to shoot me because I don’t have any money for him.”
Lopez then made a dash for the front door where she and her son Abner Lopez tried to hold back the men from entering the house. There was a struggle as the business woman tried to knock away the weapon but alas that quickly reveal the gunman’s ploy that now had him on the run.
Abner Lopez,
“Because when my mother grabbed it she feels like it was plastic just like this and she twisted it and it cracked so that is why they let go the door and they went out.”
One of the assailants did manage to grab and run off with Lopez’s seven hundred dollar cell phone that was hooked to her pants waist.
Jacqueline Godwin,
Your mom sounds like a brave woman.
Abner Lopez,
“Yes she is a brave woman, I love her.”
The phone, a gold Motorola had one hundred and fifty dollars worth of credit. Belize City police have no leads on this case.
And though they got away this time, the family is aware of its vulnerability and say they are moving. They also told 7NEWS that they know some people do not sympathize with them because they have been accused of purchasing stolen items in particular copper. Still, they maintain that they run a legitimate business.
