House ransacked at 4:00 a.m., says irate landlord

The weekend’s other allegation of police impropriety involves a tactic that authorities have been using for years: that is the entering and ransacking of private premises without the benefit of a search warrant. The cops say it’s both legal and necessary…but for one man hassled in the wee hours of Saturday morning, it’s a practice that ought to be stopped.

Douglas Gill, Complainant, Police Search

“When I leave from Belize here and went to the United States, I always say I’m coming back and try to live a good life, and this is what I have been through, it’s really disturbing.”

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

Following Hurricane Hattie in 1961, sixty-seven year old Douglas Gill left Belize to find a better life in the United States, but eventually decided to return home to retire and do something with the money he managed to earn abroad. Today, he makes a living by renting apartments from his three storey concrete building at number seventy-five Vernon Street. Gill says he never regretted moving back to Belize until early Saturday morning.

Douglas Gill

“It’s about four o’clock in the morning and the next thing I hear my dog start barking. I got up and when got out there, I ask who was it? They say it was the police. What you want? Open the door, open the door. I say I am coming. When I got my keys and open the door, I had the wrong keys, so I said I have to get the right keys. No, no you have the right keys there and they put a gun on me then… And they tried to get the keys for the tenants and I said these are working people and I am not going to give up the keys. They said well we are going to get them up anyway and they started form up her number one, number two, and they went on the second floor and they did the same thing.”

Gill says it was not until half an hour after the police started to ransack his place that one of the officers told him why they were searching his apartment and that of his tenants.

Douglas Gill

“I asked him why you all are here? Well we get a call saying that you were walking on your porch there with AK gun and all kind of thing like that. I do not have any gun. They searched all over my place and they did not find nothing, nothing at all. And still they take me down say they found a little bit of weed, and still I wasn’t charged and it was no weed.”

By the time the police got through with Gill’s apartment, he said it was a total mess, especially inside his bedroom where the bed was piled with drawers, suitcase, clothes and other items.

Douglas Gill

“And now I am really upset that I can say by the end of this month, you are going to see a for sale sign up there. I rather go back to the States because this is vigilante.”

“I noh have problem with nobody, I never get in a fuss with nobody, no fight, no nothing. Everybody around here know me pretty good and they were surprised.”

Gill says he understands the police have their job to do, but they should at least do their investigation before rushing into anyone’s residence and leaving it a mess without even as much as an apology. But according to Police Press Officer G. Michael Reid, based on the information they received, the authorities had every right to search the premises.

G. Michael Reid, Police Press Officer

“Police were acting upon intelligence information that informed us that there was a drug transaction that had occurred and that there in fact might have been some drugs at that location… If there is enough information that tells us there might be drugs or they might be illegal firearms at a location, the police do not need a warrant.”

“No charges were brought against him. The police went and conducted their search, there was no incriminating evidence found. And you know, Jackie it is not every time the police will come away with what they were looking for. Work has to go on, and if police receive information that there might be drugs or firearms at a certain location they will visit that location and conduct a search in a professional manner.”

But as far as Gill is concerned, the way the police searched his building was anything but professional.

Douglas Gill

“Someone just call and say that man so and so, they have something against you. They right up there, they just break into your place at four in the morning while you are in your bed, and that is really disturbing.”

Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.

We were unable to determine the exact nature of the “intelligence information” that police relied on to initiate the raid.