Tonight Belizean activist Rufus X claims he has lost four and a half million dollars - after his 4 story apartment complex was burglarized and completely destroyed.
The building is located on Riverside Street in the St Martins area. X told us while he was away last week in Punta Gorda, thieves broke into his apartment complex and stole everything -and what they left behind was reduced to dust.
The locks on the gates were broken off and rapel ropes from the fourth floor down to the ground floors were found on the building. He isn't the first victim of burglary in that area - and this isn't the first time his building has been targeted. He told us about it:..
Rufus X
"Actually Monica I was informed by an anonymous caller that somebody was inside the building, but I wasn't here at the time. I was in PG and so when I came down I went straight over there about 10:40 yesterday and found out that the building was totally destroyed. It's a 4.5 million dollar project totally destroyed just like that."
Monica Bodden
"You care to just describe what you saw when you went there?"
Rufus X
"What I saw in the first instance was the 3 longitude wall facing west was taken down and most of the windows and all of the interior and partition were guts out completely. All the electrical and plumbing is gone. It just seems as though it was a plan attack on the building. Because it had to be a lot of people, it's not two people were doing it. It had to be a whole group because it's a lot of destruction that I have seen there."
Monica Bodden
"Is this the first time that the place has been burglarized?"
Rufus X
"No, they burglarized it before and I keep on informing the police and making reports to the police but those are the area that even the police dread to go because they become very unruly and really no government activity going on back there. The place is practically dark and it's lawless, there is no police going around here on duty. Even the police like I said are afraid of those areas."
Monica Bodden
"The street that the apartment complex in on. What's the name?"
Rufus X
"We called it Riverside Drive; it's the street right along the riverside. It's accessible by the large boulevard that leads from the education complex right down to the river."
Monica Bodden
"Was the place locked up?"
Rufus X
"Yes it was locked up with bog chains, burglar bars and everything in the main entrance. You wouldn't believe people could get in there but I have seen big ropes that hang all the way from the top that they climb up with. All sorts of gadgets like ladder, you name it. It was a big operation."
"When I got the communication about the building being burglarized it was 6 o" clock in the evening. So people were there. In fact some people right in front of the building is participating in the burglarization, I think that's the problem. People there are organizing the burglary."
Monica Bodden
"What you plan to do about it?"
Rufus X
"I have took 4 policemen back there and I have given a statement and we gone through certain things that are missing, but its hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of things. If fact downstairs was a warehouse that you wouldn't believe they could get into because I have 7 10feet by 12feet curtain gauge 12 stainless steel. I thought nobody was going to get into that but they beat off the security door with mall. In fact the people over here at Ventura Shopping mall told me that they saw a guy whapping with a mall one day and they actually took the security door when they took it off. It's a big operation. I think the operation finished on Monday."
Monica Bodden
"You were where?"
Rufus X
"I was in PG. If I were here you would definitely have some bodies because if that lady that called me; if I had went back there, when I look at the total destruction it warrant anybody to go mad, crazy."
Rufus X says he would like police to beef up patrols in the area.
