Downtown businesses burgled overnight

Police are still looking for the criminal or criminals who broke into a pair of downtown Belize City businesses. According to the victim, the thieves were talented, but not particularly lucky.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

This morning, employees of Eduardo Martinez and Sons Limited and the Caribbean Holidays Travel Agency, located at number 81 Albert Street, arrived at work only to find out that thieves had burglarised their offices overnight.

Alfonso Ayuso, Manager, Eduardo Martinez Sons Ltd.

“Apparently they broke the padlocks or they cut the padlocks and they opened the curtains and they spliced off the alarm, that was the first thing that they did. After that, they proceeded to break the window louvers and they came in here. They also broke the door of the other office. I don’t know which one they came in first, if it was here or there.”

Once inside the auto parts store, it seems as if the burglars knew just what to do and where to go inside the building, leading Alfonso Ayuso, the Manager of Eduardo Martinez and Sons Limited, to strongly believe the thieves were very familiar with the store.

Alfonso Ayuso

“They came in and cut the wires of the sensors at the back.”

Jacqueline Woods

“So they obviously knew what they were doing and they may have been familiar with the store? ”

Alfonso Ayuso

“Yes. The person knew what he was doing because the person also pulled the, if you notice that shelf there, it was pulled and the plywood of the wall was knocked off so they can go probably go into the other office.”

While the thieves did not take anything from the Travel Agency, they did steal the cash register from next door. But as Ayuso explains, the burglars efforts were all for nothing.

Alfonso Ayuso

“They went with the register. I think they thought that money was in there, but to their bad luck, there was no money in there.” (laughs)

In their haste to leave the store, the thieves left behind this toolbox. The container was discovered on the counter top and may help police in this case. Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.

This is the second time the auto store has been broken into.