Four heavily
armed and masked bandits yesterday
broke into a Canje home and robbed a family of an
undisclosed amount of cash and jewellery.
Vijay Chung, 33, of Betsy Ground, who was
traumatised by the 30-minute ordeal and hardly
wanted to recall the incident, said at about 3 am
she was awakened by a loud thud on their zinc shed.
The woman said she then heard the back door near to
her bedroom being pushed loudly and, upon hearing
the noise, her husband, Leslie Chung, 37, left the
bedroom to investigate and came face to face with
the bandits. The woman told Stabroek News (SN) that
the men were all armed with guns and had entered the
house by removing two louvre window panes and
pushing open a wooden
and grill door.

Removing
two louvre window panes
Vijay said they grabbed Leslie and put him to lie
on the floor while demanding money and gold
jewellery. Vijay said they then entered the bedroom
where she was holding her ten-month-old son Dylan.
The baby started to scream and this angered the
bandits, she said, and they shouted that she should
stop the baby from crying. The woman said she does
not like to use gold jewellery and as such did not
have much to give the bandits.
She said they stripped her
of the wedding band and
diamond ring that
she had hardly removed since she got married 16
years ago and also ripped
off a gold chain her husband was wearing.
Vijay said the bandits then proceeded to ransack
the drawers while cursing and demanding more money
and jewellery. She said they then barged into the
bedroom of her daughters, 12-year-old Zoya, and
five-year-old Chelsea, as Zoya was coming out of the
bedroom and they pointed a gun
at her and ordered her to "go back
inside." The men then ransacked the drawers in
the girls' room.

Gun-butted
both her and her husband
The woman said they
gun-butted both her and her husband while
demanding more money and jewellery.

The bandits also stole
items including DVD players and about
30 cartons of cigarettes from the family's
shop. Vijay said the money that they took was set
aside to pay business persons who she had taken
stock from on credit. The distressed woman said
"The bandits just come and take away everything
we worked so hard for just to give our children a
good education." She said they now have to
start all over again to get money to pay their
debts. (Shabna Ullah)