Police are searching for a gang of burglars who broke into a mall in downtown Port-of-Spain on Thursday night and escaped with hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise. Kennedy Garib, the manager of Time Plaza Mall at Henry Street, arrived at around 5 am yesterday morning to find a large hole in a wall. He realised the alarm system had been destroyed and called the police.
Detectives of the Port-of-Spain CID, led by ASP Ajith Persad, arrived soon after and discovered that showcases of 17 of the stores at the mall had been broken.The owners of the businesses, which included a pharmacy, a cellphone retailer, an electronic store and several clothing stores, were contacted.Investigators said the owners were unable to immediately estimate the value of the stolen items, but the burglars scored a sizeable haul.
They said some of the burglars' activities were captured on CCTV cameras and several fingerprints were lifted off surfaces at the scene. While police said an arrest is imminent, no one had been arrested up to late yesterday.Investigators described the group of burglars as "professionals" and said they would have had the building under surveillance for some time before attempting the brazen burglary.
In an interview with television station CNC3 yesterday, president of the Downtown Owners and Merchant Association Gregory Aboud said while his organisation was disturbed by the incident, it was happy that such occurrences were rare in Port-of-Spain, as they seemed to only happen once a year."It is always a traumatic and discouraging experience," Aboud was quoted as saying.Investigations are continuing.