The Cara­po Hin­du Tem­ple which was robbed twice last week has lost at least $5,000 in valu­ables. The thieves even had a feast of corned beef and bread af­ter cook­ing the corned beef in a pot used at the tem­ple, said a mem­ber of the tem­ple ex­ec­u­tive, Stephen Sookram.

"They used the pots in our kitchen and pre­pared it on the stove and had it right here. Corned beef is some­thing we Hin­dus don’t use at all. We are sad they would do some­thing like that," Sookram said.

He said they al­so tried to take off the LED lights that were in­stalled above the stage. "Ap­par­ent­ly, they could not re­move them, and so they dis­con­nect­ed the wires. When we re­turned this morn­ing (Sat­ur­day) an­oth­er door was smashed in, and they got in again and took an­oth­er two ring stoves."

Temple elder Stephen Sookram shows Guardian Media Limited a piece of costume jewelry removed from one of the Murtis at the Carapo Shiv Mandir yesterday.

AKASH SAMAROO

Sookram said on Sun­day they had their usu­al de­vo­tions. They cleaned up and se­cured the tem­ple be­fore leav­ing. "We de­cid­ed to have some­thing to­day (Sat­ur­day) for the moth­ers, as to­mor­row (Sun­day) is Moth­er’s Day."

He said they re­turned on Fri­day evening and on en­ter­ing the south­ern en­trance, he saw the door smashed in. "That put a de­pressed spir­it on every­thing," he told CNC3 yes­ter­day.

He said the thieves took five gas tanks, a ring stove, mi­crowave, ket­tle and a small ra­dio.

Sookram al­so said in 2018 there was an­oth­er break-in, but it was not as bad as this time.

Sookram said he was "sad­dened". "All I can say is that there is a God and kar­ma comes back to haunt you."

The po­lice are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions, Sookram said.