Robbers caught in high speed chase

The next story started out as just another burglary but turned out to be a comically botched up jacking.  It happened, or should we say, started in Lord’s Bank Village at a house where the thieves broke in and ended up at the roundabout near the Belcan Bridge in Belize City with a high speed chase between the burglars and police.  It was not once, but three times in one single day that the thieves targeted the house. News Five’s Marion Ali went to Lord’s Bank today to unravel the series of incidents and files this report.

Marion Ali, Reporting

Homeowner, Emil Young, will get a bit of good and bad news when he returns to his house in Lord’s Bank Village.  It happened that thieves showed up three times in twelve hours at his property on Old Well Road to remove all his household belongings.  But, they didn’t quite.  Sherman Estell and friends who were watching the house, managed to nab the robbers on their third and last attempt.  On Monday evening, one of Estell’s friends called to inform him that the first break in occurred around six thirty on Monday evening.

Sherman Estell, friend of homeowner

“The front door was torn off, the locks and the back window and all the stuff was accumulated in the middle of the hall. So the police looked at everything and they told us to secure it. So, we secure it and I get a young man to stay at the house.”

But the thieves were not deterred when they returned to the house and observed that the items weren’t the way they had packed and left them.  In fact, they were intent on cleaning out the house, that when they discovered that someone was at home, they proceeded to rob him as well.

sherman estell

Sherman Estell

“I got a call about two-fifteen this morning saying that whoever broke into the house came back and that all the stuff are outside.  Everything except a bicycle that I could recognize that I had seen inside before.”

Marion Ali

“A racer bike?”

Sherman Estell

“Yes.  And the young man said they stole his phone as well.”

Marion Ali

“Ok, so they robbed him?”

Sherman Estell

“Of his cell phone and the stuff that was in the middle of the house weren’t there.”

Marion Ali

“Who called you then at two fifteen?”

Sherman Estell

“The neighbor.”

Estell said he immediately called the Ladyville police who responded in time to find his friend’s household appliances and other belongings an area outside of the yard.  With the help of police, Estell once again he once again secured the items inside the house and the young man decided to stay at the house with some of his friends, to secure the belongings.  But, as fate, or luck would have it, the thieves returned.  This would be the third time in less than twelve hours!

Sherman Estell

“Two of his other friends decided to stay with him until morning. The thief they decide to come back again.  They came back again because the three young men said that they saw a couple guys and they started to question them and they saw this car coming down the street very slowly and then stopped and then the car passed them and when they look in the back of the car they could see the bicycle hanging out.  So they pulled over the car and they asked about the bike.  The guys said they found it.”

Marion Ali

“This was what time?”

Sherman Estell

“This was bout four or five in the morning.  And then a chase ensued.”

The burglars had apparently hidden the bicycle at a separate location from the other items they removed from the house, but the bike was all they could find outside the house when they returned the third time.  And when the three young men realized that they were talking to the actual burglars, they used their vehicle to set chase after them.  It would be a high speed pursuit that ended at the Belcan roundabout in Belize City.

This is the blue Mazda car that the thieves used to try to transport the stolen items in.  But they never escaped.  Sometime during the chase, the thieves threw the bicycle out of their vehicle and sped to Belize City where the driver lost control and crashed into the pedestrian railing.  Police say that the license plates on the vehicle are registered to another vehicle, which makes it possible that the Mazda could have also been stolen.  Up to news time, Ladyville police had detained the three suspects from Belize City, who also never managed to escape their crashed vehicle.  They are now facing charges of handling stolen goods and burglary. Marion Ali for News Five.

There are frequent burglaries at Lord’s Bank, Ladyville, Sandhill and Mile eight on the Western Highway.