A 59-year-old Penal businesswoman is thanking God for life, after surviving a home invasion by four Spanish-speaking, cutlass-wielding bandits.
They robbed her of “every cent,” and her jewellery, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
During an interview with Guardian Media yesterday, Taramatie Jaggessar was thankful that the intruders did not hurt her.
She explained that she uses a portable oxygen machine to help her breathe due to a lung problem. On Sunday night, she fell asleep with the tubes attached to her nose.
Sometime after midnight, she was jolted by a banging sound at her bedroom door.
Seconds later, she was accosted by four masked bandits who spoke Spanish. One of them sounded like a woman, she said.
Jaggessar said they took off the jewellery she was wearing. She begged them not to hurt her.
“I start to beg and say please don’t interfere with me,” she said.
“I have a problem with my lungs so I was on oxygen. I had the oxygen on. I told them I am sick.”
She said they put their fingers on their lips, motioning for her to be quiet.
They then threw a blanket over her face and began ransacking her bedroom.
“They never asked where the money or the jewels. They just started unpacking,” she said.
“I was just praying, Please save me, Lord. Don’t let them do me anything. Let them take whatever and leave me alone. I tried not to be nice and not to fret and be quiet so they would leave me.”
She said every time she tried to move they lifted the cutlass threateningly.
“Then they cover me back. I tried to be quiet. They ransacked everything. They took all of my jewellery, my money, all of the rooms. They emptied everything in a bag. My US, Canadian and TT money they took. They left me without a cent.”
They eventually tied her hands and feet and left her under the blanket.
“If I didn’t have the oxygen I would have died below that blanket.”
When she was sure they left, she managed to free herself, but she could not call the police because they had stolen her two cellphones.
She said they also took the keys to her home and vehicle and locked her inside her house.
Through her window, she shouted for help and even tried signalling and calling out to passing vehicles but no one heard her. Eventually, she got the attention of one of her neighbours who was putting out his garbage at 5.30 am. She told him what had happened and asked him to fetch her brother who lived nearby. Her brother used a ladder to enter her house through a window.
“I remained there for all those hours but thank God I had oxygen to breathe,” she lamented.
Emptying a basket with more than 20 empty jewellery boxes, she said her jewellery had sentimental value and was collected over decades.
“I got this when I got married, when I got from my husband’s side, gifts from my husband, my children. A 22-carat jewel set from my husband for my 50th birthday,” she said.
Jaggessar said it appeared the intruders had intimate knowledge of the inside of her house and where she kept her money and valuables. They used a key to open a back gate to exit her premises.
Jaggessar said the intruders may have passed from the side of the house and scaled the wall, judging from the muddy shoe prints.
They entered her home by removing a sliding window by the kitchen.
They also used two of her cutlasses, which they left behind, during the ordeal.
Grateful to the police for their prompt response, she said she only moved into her home in April.
Lamenting the high crime rate, Jaggessar said, “We need plenty of help to fight crime in this country. People must step up and help. Only when you are in this distress, then you will understand it.”
Meanwhile, the police were still searching for the suspects yesterday afternoon.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the police or call Crime Stoppers at 800-TIPS.
