Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
“Thank God I am alive,” declared a 57-year-old Tabaquite doubles vendor yesterday, a day after he was robbed at gunpoint. The armed bandits who robbed him had first held up a gas station in Flanagin Town minutes earlier.
A video clip of the gas station robbery showed a female attendant pumping fuel into the suspects’ vehicle around 3.30 pm. One of the suspects exited the front seat and accosted the female employee at gunpoint, while another suspect exited the back seat and approached the driver of a vehicle who was in line for gas. That motorist drove off. They then robbed the store.
Later, the same car involved in the earlier robbery stopped near the doubles vendor, who was selling to two customers under a shed along the main road in Tabaquite near the gas station. The vendor said there were two bandits in the vehicle, and one pointed a gun directly at him.
“He opened the door and ran out of the car, and I heard the gun click. He cock the gun,” he said.
He said the suspect demanded that he hand over his money.
He said, “There were two customers eating doubles. They take one of their wallets. The other man was a poor guy, he only had about $6 to pay for the doubles.”
The vendor said he begged for their lives.
“I put up my hand. I tell him all the money in a box; take it and go. Please don’t do nobody nothing.”
He said the bandits searched him, grabbed the box with the money and his wife’s phone, and escaped.
He said he was thankful that his wife had walked away just before they arrived. He said it was the first time in 17 years of selling doubles in that area that they were robbed.
“I thank God for protecting us. He was with us. Is only now after the incident, you thinking about it, about what could have happened?” the vendor said.
Three weeks ago, two residents, including an elderly man, were murdered in Tabaquite. This triggered protest action by residents who demanded that the authorities reopen the Brasso Police Station. The station was closed about four years ago to be repurposed, and the officers were reassigned to the Gran Couva Police Station.
The residents complained that there had been an increase in crimes and the length of time it took for the police to respond to a report, due to the distance and the lack of police patrols.
