Suspect caught, cohort surrenders

A week of successes on CRIMEWATCH this week as host Ian Alleyne started with a bang, showing video of men stealing from a gold Honda civic with black rims outside a bar on the Caroni Savannah Road, Chaguanas. The men, whom Alleyne identified as only “Socks” and “Greedy,” were accompanied on their mission by a stout unidentified lady.

Alleyne alleged that the men were employed by a popular car dealer whose business is located in Central. The video was also brought to the attention of Assistant Superintendent of Police (Central Division) Johnny Abraham. Hours after the footage aired on CRIMEWATCH one of the men was arrested and another later surrendered to police. Alleyne admitted he knows the family of the car dealer well, but said, “They cannot be encouraging people to steal. The right thing is the right thing.”

Also this week, 79-year-old Lawrence Ramsoondar appealed to Alleyne for help, telling him he bought a vehicle from Vishnu “Vishram” Siew, of Railway Road, Longdenville, Chaguanas, in November 2012. He alleged that it was only after he took possession of the vehicle that he realised it had been tampered with. He brought it to the attention of Siew, who took the vehicle with a promise that it would be returned. However, Ramsoondar says he had been trying for several months to get in touch with Siew but to no avail.

Hours after the story aired on CRIMEWATCH Alleyne got in contact with Siew and both he and Ramsoondar came to the show. Siew admitted there was an issue with the vehicle and he had taken it. He offered to either return the vehicle to Ramsoondar or give him money for it. Alleyne urged Ramsoondar to take the vehicle. The handover took place in the GML carpark on the evening April 15th. Ramsoondar returned to the show on Wednesday to thank Alleyne for helping him get the vehicle back. 

Alleyne also brought one of his friends, Tony, a straightener and a painter, to look at the vehicle and fix it. Ramsoondar declared “that is wetting after wetting” and wished Alleyne long life and good health for all his help. And an employee of a popular clothing store at a mall in East Trinidad was caught on camera stealing a customer’s handbag.

The woman, dressed in a blue polo and jeans, was seen shifting the customer’s handbag along a seat placed for customers in the store. She later brought out a bag filled with garbage, dumped the handbag and then threw garbage from a nearby bin in the bag. 

The owner of the handbag, who was in the CRIMEWATCH studio, looked on in shock and horror at what the woman had done with her handbag. She had never seen the video before. She told Alleyne the handbag and its contents were valued at over $4,000
Alleyne was able to get in contact with the woman who was seen removing the handbag. She told him she checked the handbag and it was empty. She said she spoke to the floor manager of the store and was told to throw the bag in the garbage. 

But the owner said when she asked at the front desk of the store no one knew what had happened with to bag. She denied that the bag was empty, saying she had a Blackberry, money, makeup, credit card, bank card, driver’s permit and her ID card among other items in the bag.

After much debate over whether the bag was stolen or not, the woman captured in the video removing the bag agreed to repay the owner of the handbag $2,000. Alleyne also got the woman to agree to repay the money in four tranches over four weeks.

UNSOLVED

Stephen Charles, of upper Layan Hill, Belmont, says he was hired to do a job by Mahendra Sookram in January of this year. He said he and his workmen were hired to install Styrofoam for soundproofing on a ceiling in a building in Frederick Settlement, Caroni. He said they completed the job and he was paid $15,000 but was still owed $10,500 by Sookram.

Sookram appeared on CRIMEWATCH the next day accusing Charles of failing to complete the job he was hired to do. He is insisting that Charles needs to do additional work before he can pay him. But Charles told Alleyne any additional work to be done will require additional payment. 

In any event, he said all he wants is the money owed to him. Both men left the studio with the issue as yet unresolved. Mahendra insisted that if Charles starts the additional work, he would pay him $3,000 on the first day and the remaining $7,000 when the job is halfway done. Charles bluntly refused.