On Friday two brazen broad daylight robbers managed to got away with two hundred dollars in an armed robbery of A to Z store on King Street.
It was the third armed hold up and robbery in one week at an Indian store in the downtown area of Belize City.
And already this week, there has been another armed assault of an Albert Street store....and it shows all the brazen impunity of last week’s robberies.
But this time the pair of robbers left empty handed, even though one of the robbers was carried a gun and there were only two female attendants in the store – one of them very pregnant.
It happened just after 5:00 at the body image store, which sits at the corner of albert and king streets.
The pregnant employee asked not to appear on camera but she did tell us a remarkable story of hard nosed resistance and how she just refused to let the armed assailants leave with any of the day sales.
Voice of Female Employee
“First he came and asked us for a pants, and I told him the size only come in size forty, and he said ‘that’s his size’. He was a little bit scrawny, so size forty would never be able to fit him, and then he said ‘just take down the pants’. Then the other guy came in and had a gun in his hand, then he started fixing it up because he just had a big barrel, then he put the gun together and set it here. Then after that he came in and said ‘give us all you got’ and I said no. Then after that he asked the girl.He said ‘you no hear what I she then, give me what you have.’ Then when he said that I told her no, then I went by the side like at the back there where he was and she was at the counter here. He pointed the gun towards her, then my boss daughter was outside which is when I began getting scared because the little girl was outside and he told his friend to ‘lock the door, lock the door,’ and then I said don’t lock no door and it looked like that must have gotten him afraid when I said no lock the door. I walk towards him and then an Indian man passed and that’s how I hailed him, and the boy said ‘you want things get nasty in here?’ and when he said that I walked a little bit more. Then he said ‘nobody move’ or else he would shoot. He didn’t do anything because it looked like he was quite afraid of us or I’m not sure.”
Jacqueline Godwin
“This guy was armed, why did you decide to stand up to him?”
Voice of Female Employee
“Because it was a young man so I wasn’t-well, I was scared a little bit because I’m pregnant, but still it wasn’t something major for me because I have to think about others and myself as well, and just to give away some money like that is not easy to do.”
Jacqueline Godwin
“I like how you said that you work hard for your money.”
Voice of Female Employee
“Exactly, and the same way I work and I am pregnant, everybody else could do the same, that’s how I feel.”
Jacqueline Godwin
“What is surprising is that you said a policeman was standing right outside when all of this was unfolding inside the store.”
Voice of Female Employee
“Yes, a policeman was right outside at the corner of King Street and Albert Street but it seems that he was minding someone else’s business because he didn’t come to see what was happening. The two guys just flung their bicycles outside, so I expected he would have come and seen what was happening, but he didn’t come or anything. He just stood up right outside there.
Well I think the police should really try to do something about this because it is getting worse and worse. We young women, because it’s mostly women who work for the Indians, are risking our lives out here, and if the policemen cannot do that, then we will try to find something else. This is the only thing that’s putting bread on the table right now, a job."
She claims that even after they alerted the police man, he did not try to catch the fleeing would-be robbers instead got on his radio and called for back up informing his fellow officers that the two young men got away by riding their bicycles against traffic on King Street.
Seems it didn’t do much good as Belize City police have no leads on this case.