Villagers in Sea View Farm are baffled as to how two masked men were yesterday able to “slither” from the village unseen after robbing a tiny shop at gunpoint along with an AS Bryden delivery van.
The two bandits, one armed with a gun, stormed the shop at about 2:30 pm at the same time the delivery van was dropping off goods and held up two patrons, the shop attendant and two A S Bryden’s sales men, relieving them of cash and jewellery.
According to the female shop attendant who was shaken up by the ordeal, the gunman entered the premises, shoved a teenaged patron to the floor, ordered everyone to hand over their money, as his accomplice remained outside with the truck and the other delivery man.
“I can’t remember exactly what he said but he said I was to give him everything and if he had to come behind the counter and find anything else, he go shoot me,” the attendant recounted.
The woman said the teenager, who was about to enter the building when the masked men appeared, was pulled inside and told to lie on the floor.
She added, “The sales guy was taking out his money out of his wallet and they took everything from him, before they left. They took (money) from the truck and ran away.”
The duo made off with the shop’s day’s earnings, customers cash, the attendant’s gold chain and pendant before fleeing the scene of foot.
The police were called in, but a sweep of the area reportedly yielded nothing that would assist them in their investigations.
“Sea View Farm is not very big and the roads are very small so how could two men just run out of a village and nobody see anything,” one villager told OBSERVER Media.
Another added, “We have to be our brother’s keeper, sun high in the sky and nobody notice any suspicious activities or even a vehicle. These guys are getting very barefaced and we have to look out for one another.”
Dear Law Enforcement,
It is alarming to hear of the blight of robberies that appear to be sweeping across my beloved Antigua. It is even more alarming and heart wrenching to hear that my mother’s “tiny” shop, including delivery personnel, staff and customers, were the subject of a robbery. . . at gunpoint.
I grew up in Sea View Farm and plan to return to my home on completion of my studies in the United States, but the news from “Friendly Alley” is anything but friendly.
[To get the disclosure out of the way and place on the table any challenge to my objectivity; though, if there be any, are justified.] My mother and her interests were held at gun-point.
I worry at what has become and what will continue to become of my country, my village, and the Antiguan way of life.
Following the news stories of various robberies island-wide is upsetting. Listening to the pain, alarm, concern, loss, and near-surrender in my mother’s voice cultivates a mixture of unadulterated anger within me for the cowards responsible.
The incident also drums up a high degree of frustration with what appears to be law enforcement’s impotence bringing crime under control.
If it’s too much to ask for heads to roll or persons to be replaced for being unable to stem the tide of rising crime, then, perhaps, public policy demands that citizens be given the means and legal cover to defend their property and, their own lives and the lives of others.
If the saying that “only who feels it knows it” is sufficiently experienced by many, then the tide is ripe for either a mass diffusion of anger and frustration, or a channeled direction of those energies for structured, comprehensive change.
It’s at my door steps and I now feel. I am open to joining either side. Law enforcement, you decide which side my energies will be placed.
Sincerely,
Michael S. Browne
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MR. Cort, what are you doing in combatting the crime situation in antigua? antigua is inundated with guns and something drastic has to happen soon. We the citizens are tired of gun crime and want to see something done very soon.
More severe penalty should be given to criminals. It’s due time the authorities get serious and stop going easy on those thugs that are terrorizing the population.
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