The proprietor of a Triumph, East Coast Demerara grocery store, his staff and two customers were forced to lie on the ground as two armed dreadlocked bandits carried out a daring midday robbery yesterday. The robbery left several villagers traumatized.

The bandits, using a gold coloured car, stormed Rahim and Seeta Grocery Store on Agriculture Road at around 11:30 hours.

 

The business is owned by Rahim Hussain and his wife Bhagwandai.

According to one of the employees, minutes before the robbery occurred, the two bandits had entered the shop and ordered two Fruta juices and left. Abut 10 minutes later the bandits returned.

Two of them sat in the car while the two who had entered earlier went back into the store.

This time, one of the bandits requested a carton of cigarettes and before it could be handed to him, he whipped out a gun and pointed it at the proprietor's head.

The other bandit then went to the back of the shop where a male employee was, and stuck him up too.

The other employees, all females, along with two female customers, were then ordered to lie face down on the ground.

“Dey tell we lie down pon de f…ing ground. I raise up me head and one ah dem point he gun at me and tell me stay down,” one of the employees told this newspaper.

During this time, the bandit who had held up the proprietor was given an undisclosed sum of cash.

His accomplice then snatched up a carton of cigarettes and they both fled into the waiting car which sped away towards the railway embankment.

“Dis thing happen so fast, like in about five minutes,” the employee said.

When Kaieteur News arrived on the scene a number of villagers had gathered at the grocery store trying to cheer up the victims.

The proprietor's wife was crying while the employees were still trying to get a grip of themselves.

This is the second time that the grocery store has been robbed.

Monday October 17, 2005