No arrests yet in Dangriga bank heist

Tonight more details are emerging from a brazen daylight bank robbery that netted the bad guys more than a hundred thousand dollars in cash and left one man recovering from gunshot wounds. According to twenty-six year old Marlon Ramos, an employee of Courts Dangriga branch, just after one p.m. while he was arranging a delivery for a staff member in the Bank of Nova Scotia, two masked men wearing green clothing and brandishing large guns burst into the bank, located on St. Vincent Street, and ordered everyone to get on the ground. As if to emphasize their point, one of the gunmen squeezed off a shot. Ramos says he hit the deck even as he felt a distinctive burning sensation on the right side of his body. As he lay there, the thieves took the cash and then fired off another shot as they made their way out to their getaway car idling on the street. That vehicle has been described as a green Toyota that was reported stolen in Belize City. As they sped off, Ramos realized that he had been shot in the right shoulder and was rushed to the Southern Regional Hospital for treatment. He was later transferred to Belmopan and then to Belize Medical Associates, but this morning was released to recuperate at home. Today bank officials confirmed to News Five that the amount taken in the heist was more than a hundred thousand dollars in cash. Following meetings at the Central Bank today, we understand that the entire banking community will be looking to enhance security measures at their respective institutions. Police report that several persons have been detained for questioning but an arrest has yet to be made in connection with this incident. The getaway car has been found abandoned and burned near mile fourteen on the Stann Creek Valley Road. People travelling on that road, the Coastal Road, or the Hummingbird and Southern Highways are warned to beware of picking up hitchhikers and to please report any suspicious incidents to police.