Robber gets 8 years for empty bag

Two Belize City robbers who stole an empty knapsack got some hefty jail time for their trouble today in Belize City Magistrate’s Court. Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord sentenced eighteen-year-old Kirk Anderson of Faber’s Road to six years in prison for robbery and fined him ten thousand dollars for possession of an unlicensed firearm and ten thousand more for unlicensed ammunition. Since he was unable to pay his fines, Anderson got an addition year for both the gun and the ammunition, bringing his total jail time to eight years. His accomplice, eighteen-year-old Tyrone Tillett, who had no prior convictions, was fined one thousand five hundred dollars, payable by July fifteenth.

The pair were arrested after they held up a clerk of the Belize Marketing Board, Eddison Wright, on April twenty-third, 2004 in Ladyville. Wright reported the men approached him from behind, threw him off his bicycle, and threatened him with a pen gun. He testified that one of the robbers told the other to grab his bag and if he resisted to shoot him. But it turns out all they got was an empty knapsack, and as they sped off, ran straight into a police mobile patrol with three officers inside who promptly took them into custody after Wright told them what had happened.