Quick police work solves city burglary
It’s a crime that is all too common this time of year, but unlike most burglaries, this one had a happy ending…at least for the victim.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Quick police response and investigation paid off when two suspects were apprehended and the stolen items recovered within twenty-four hours of the crime. Twenty-two year-old Dwayne Gentle and eighteen year-old Luis Reyes were today charged with burglary and handling stolen goods in connection with the incident on Wednesday night.
Inspector Simeon Alvarez of the C.I.B. says the public’s assistance was key in the apprehension of the suspects and the recovery of the stolen items.
Insp. Simeon Alvarez, O.C., Crimes Investigation Branch
“Without the information coming from the public, we wouldn’t have been able to recover those properties. As a matter of fact, if that citizen wasn’t a law abiding citizen that come forward and gave the police certain information, we wouldn’t have recovered those stuff. And those items, valuing over two thousand dollars would have only gone for two hundred because looking at the stereo that valued seventeen hundred that would have gone for one hundred dollars Belize. Why? The guy in the interview said that he just wanted money, one hundred dollars.”
Marion Ali
“Was this a unique case in your pursuit, apprehension and recovery of not only the suspects, but also the items? Was this unique in that it was solved so quickly, that you recovered the stolen items within less than twenty-four hours of the incident?
Insp. Simeon Alvarez
“Yes, very rare we recover properties stolen from a burglary scene. Because we have people out there that encourage these criminals by buying the stuff for little or nothing. So it is very rare that we recover items like these.”
Also key in the recovery of items was the former Violence Intelligence Unit, now the Crimes Intelligence Unit. Sergeant Chester Williams, who heads that unit, says his team responded to a tip, which led to a house where the items were stored.
Sgt. Chester Williams, Commander, C.I.U.
“After having seen the items in the house and no one was there, I believed that it would have been fruitless for us to move these items without catching the suspects. So I used my initiatives and decided that I would put a surveillance team in the area. I post two men in the area to monitor the house, so as to await when these person who had placed these items in the house return for them, so that we can apprehend them along with the items. The surveillance team stayed in place until around 5:00 yesterday evening, that was when the two suspects arrived in a taxi. They were given the opportunity to load the items in the taxi, at which time the surveillance team came out and detained them.”
The items included a stereo system, a colour television, and an assortment of personal possessions. The thieves pried open a burglar barred window between 8:00 and 11:00 on Wednesday night when the house’s occupants were not at home.
And in case you were wondering, one of those occupants was News 5’s Marion Ali. She thanks the police department and trusts that the same investigative energy will be applied to all crime victims, whether or not they are members of the press corps.
