Businessman loses cash, gun, to robbers

With many of the nation’s police officers doing special duty in Belmopan there was a risk that crime could run rampant elsewhere. Fortunately it didn’t, but that doesn’t mean all was totally quiet in Belize City.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
For the past thirty years, Julian Chell has been selling fruits and vegetables at number two Iguana Street. It is not the first time that he has been held up but Chell says when two unmasked armed men entered his premises shortly after two this afternoon, he had reasons to fear for his life and the safety of his family and employees. Chell says at first, he did not notice the weapon when one of the men asked him for a banana but soon as he turned his back, he felt a gun at his side.

Julian Chell, Victim/Holdup
?Well we were standing up here and two men came and one had a gun and one had a knife, they demanded money and we had to give them because maybe I would have been a dead man today.?

Jacqueline Woods
?What did they tell you??

Julian Call
?Well just give me the money and give me the gun. I don?t know how they know that I had my gun, but they took away my gun, my cellular phone and all my money.?

Chell says the men took four hundred and eighty dollars and an undisclosed amount from a next door vendor. Chell says he took chase after the men but they got away in a vehicle that appeared to have been waiting for them.

Julian Call
?They got away with a car; a taxi car. We have gotten the taxi license plate already and I saw the car because I was chasing them. I went to the police. The police they responded quickly but they don?t have the manpower because all of them are in Belmopan.?

Chell says he believes he was held up with a nine millimetre pistol. So far police have no suspects.