70 year old US businessman attacked twice in 8 days
A seventy year old US national currently in Belize on business is reporting that he has been attacked twice in eight days and in broad daylight. John Larencz has been living at the Renaissance Towers near the Princess Hotel since March twenty-sixth. One month after he arrived, on April twenty-eight, he was the victim of an attempted robbery purportedly orchestrated by a man and a minor. Larencz said they tried to relieve him of his chain as he was on his way to the Radisson. The partially blind man told News Five that around ten-thirty this morning, he was attacked by two brazen men who pounced on him on Marine Parade as he was en route to the gym at the Radisson. Fortunately, Larencz says he was able to flee his attackers, but not before he was injured on the chest. He has reported the matter to the police, but says he is seriously concerned about his security.
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John Lorencz, Victim
“An older gentleman and a young boy on their bikes asked me for cigarettes and I said no, I don’t have any. And then they were going to opposite direction and they turned around and followed me and had a little conversation and I said fine, have a good day. And the next thing, the old guy went back onto the street and continued going and the younger boy was beside me and then he said, “Oh, there is a lot of glass on the street.” And I said, “Be careful, you will cut your tires.” But I didn’t pay much attention; I figured they were safe, there was no problem. And then the older guy was further down the road and he hollered back at the kid and the kid turned around, reached up and tried to rip a chain off my neck. They didn’t get anything but it was very upsetting and disturbing. Then this morning, at about ten-thirty when I was walking up to Radisson again, two guys on bicycles—bigger guys, probably mid to late twenties—called out to me and said hey buddy what do you got for us. Readily, I sensed that this was not a good scene, but I didn’t feel really threatened because I was on the main road. There were various cars going by, but they didn’t seem to care about that and the next thing he was coming straight towards me. I backed up—I can move pretty quickly—and then he swung his arm and hit me across the chest and knocked the wind out of me. But I was able to get my breath and I ran. There was a water truck coming but I didn’t I didn’t bother to try to stop them. I didn’t know if they saw what happened or not, but I didn’t want to take a chance and stop with the guys right behind me on their bikes. I’m actually blind in one eye, so it is a little hard for me to see what’s going on from my left side. When I got to the Radisson, I talked to the people on the desk there and they said that I had to report this because if this was a cruise ship customer that was attacked that cruise ship would no longer come in to Belize City. And so then I thought I would go to the gym and workout and relax and see how it goes, but when I got into the gym, I realized that I wasn’t able to work out because of the pain that I was having in my chest. So the guy that works in the gym said, I’ll take you to the police to report it to the police. So he took me to the police and we reported it. Honestly, the police didn’t really seem to care too much about chasing the guys or asking for their description or anything like that.”
Larencz says that while he will continue with his routine walk to gym, he will now carry protection with him.
My goodness what a shame. You better just leave that place.
Again I will say it stay away from Belize city to all you tourist stay away from Belize city you will eighter end up being robbed or being shot this pm and gov. Has absolutely no control over bandits and murderers in fact they encourage it. Stay away from Belize city tourist.
Typically, the motherfuckers want some money too, what happens
Belize, di tou people don’t see the problem? Because i do
if anyone try to taje my money, i will kill him, my advice is to defend
yourself because those suckers police work together with all
the thieves be careful, kill the motherfuckers, an go or yiur famuly
will suffer, whi will miss a thief, or a rapist
Again, apparent total disregard by the police. When is the last time that you had any type of assuring experience with the police department? Why can’t we gain control of our own public servants? Why can’t their supervisors demand professional behavior? Just plain and simple apathy and ineptness.
Likely the same set of punks from the WIlson Street area that tried to jack me twice. Sorry for this guy but they will try again because now that he has thwarted them the bad boys feel like they have to prove something to him. The police could easily solve this problem with regular patrols between BTL Park and Fort George. This is the nicest area we have in the city for recreation, but if it is not safe it will go unused and fall into ruin. Police can’t sit in a both or station house and wait for the phone to ring. They need to be present and visible. On foot, on bikes, and in patrol vehicles. It’s not rocket science to create safe areas.
Belize city is the armpit of the nation, I have to go there regularly on business.
I got pushed down and robbed downtown, in full view of 100 people.
I do not scare easily, I chased these 2 into a bad neighborhood and called the police to a dead end alley, they asked a few questions from the neighbors then promptly gave up on my new Macbook Pro.
They no doubt got paid later to not arrest the guys i led them straight to.