Tonight, Belize City residents are in terror of home invasion, once again.
That's after two medical professionals living in the residential neighbourhood of University Heights on the northside were bound with duct tape while their home was being burglarized by four masked men.
The cops say that the culprits gained entry by prying open a burglar bar on the back gate but the victims believe this wasn't a crime of opportunity and that the men responsible had been monitoring them for some time. Cherisse Halsall reports on terror inside the door.
It was an early morning home invasion that left two middle-aged women scared and shaken.
And this afternoon Dr. Maria Lavel Reyes and former Director of the Central Health Region Melinda Guerra were still dealing with police reports trying to commit to paper the details of the worst day of their lives.
And while she said she was still too disheveled to appear on camera Melinda Guerra spoke to us off Camera and recounted the horrible details of the home invasion that frightening as it was could have been much worse.
Voice of: Melinda Guerra, Victim of Home Invasion
"It was around quarter to 5:00 when I heard Dr. Reyes shouting and then I rushed to where she was and that's when I saw four men, you know over her."
"They were on top of her yes, so then I went like Oh my god, I said please don't hurt Dr. Reyes, she's a doctor, she's just recovering from a stroke and so actually when they heard that one of them helped her back to the bed and then one of them commanded me or asked me, just lie down on the bed too."
Guerra says she tried to talking rationally to the men who told her that they'd come for money.
Cherisse Halsall:
"What was their attitude toward you at this time you're trying to talk to them, we;re they hostile at all?"
Melinda Guerra, Victim of Home Invasion
"I think one of them was very hostile, the other guy you know the one in charge he was very calm and I kept talking with him the one in charge, I think he's the one in charge, and the two other persons, well three were searching the house."
But try as they might they weren't finding any money, that's when they took Melinda Guerra hostage.
Melinda Guerra, Victim of Home Invasion
"They asked me to open the study and I went for the key and I opened the study,"
"At this time I think I was confused so then I said I remember doc had a little box so then I said oh let me give you a little box that's in there, so I went and I got it for them."
But try as she might to keep the situation calm it was playing out like a movie scene with the robbers firmly in the good guy bad guy role.
Melinda Guerra, Victim of Home Invasion
"Then you know the next person still wasn't satisfied with that. So, then he was pressuring the person you know that they have to do something."
But in this case Melinda says she was lucky and that strangely enough, Covid saved her life.
Melinda Guerra, Victim of Home Invasion
"Eventually they found a stamp, a Covid stamp that was given to me by my supervisor yesterday and that's when he realized that I was serious and that I was a nurse and then he just calm down and then he left the room then one of them stayed and he was the one with duct tape on our legs, hands and on our mouth."
Cherisse Halsall:
"Now, this is a neighborhood that people would say is very safe, do you feel that these guys were watching your movements for days?"
Melinda Guerra, Victim of Home Invasion
"I think we have to be careful, our neighbors have to be careful who they employ, people that come` to their yards to do works for them, because you don't know who these people are and they are watching your place, they watch the other neighbors place, because here they came and they lock the gate, the dogs in a section of the house so they knew there was, a gate to the back and nobody know that there is a gate."
Guerra says that from now on they'll have to be more vigilant, putting up their cameras, and making sure to secure their home.
But while the burglars made off with money and Jewelry their big-ticket item was Dr. Reyes Hilux. It's a brand of pickup that's often stolen and taken quickly across the border.
It's pictured here in all its new shiny splendor, a prize if ever there was one for the thieves that used it to spirit themselves away.
In addition to the vehicle, valued at $100,000.00 the robbers also made off with $13,000.00 US dollars,
an assortment of jewellery, gold bracelets, gold rings, and gold chains.
Police are asking that anyone who spots the stolen Hilux or has information as to its whereabouts report that information to their nearest precinct.
