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Tonight a mennonite businessman from the Armenia area outside Belmopan is making a sensational claim. He says police tried to rob him - right after he sold a pickup for fifty thousand dollars. Salus Penner - who faced serious criminal charges some years ago related to a narco plane landing - is no babe in the woods - so to speak.
But he says what happened to him today was just straight up attempted robbery. Here's what he told Jules Vasquez an hour ago via zoom.
Voice of: Salus Penner
"F-150. 2017. Nice. Very nice truck."
Jules Vasquez:
"He said he had. He had the amount for you in cash?"
Voice of: Salus Penner
"Yes."
Jules Vasquez:
"How much?"
Voice of: Salus Penner
"$48,000."
Jules Vasquez:
"$48,000 In cash"
Voice of: Salus Penner
"So 1:30. We went to the transport office. We signed over to title. So by 2:00, I was heading home. As I reached home, I noticed a white vehicle following me with no lights and spit. It came all the way up to my gate, turned around and sped off. So I jump in my vehicle and I chased them down."
"I see. You know I'm like that, right? I don't let not strange vehicle come to my yard and, you know, like I'm protective. Then my brother jumped in. We were going to follow them, so they turned around right up by the next Chinese store here in Armenia. And just basically we're chasing each other like two times here in Armenia."
"I then I said, You know what? We need to call the police. You know, you know, this is this is nonsense. But then just like that I was going here and then they just come right behind me and stop. I said, Well, you know, this is the time. That's when the two police officers stopped me and they searched my vehicle."
"They said they need to search my vehicle. I always told them, you know what, officers? You're crooks. You're absolutely crooks. You follow me on to my house. You are after my money that I sold a vehicle this morning. So they said, What are you. What are you talking about? I said, Why do you want to search my vehicle?"
"What do you think you're going to find in here? We're going to find drugs I said no, no, no, I don't deal with drugs. I'm a very honored businessperson. I said, check my truck. They went straight for my purse. So then they kept searching the whole vehicle. Then I told them that they made a big mistake. I said that they are daylight robberies. And yeah, they're the most corrupt cops that you could find."
Penner says he was going to make a police complaint - but he would only do so to Deputy Compol Richard Rosado - who was unavailable.
