Police work on weekend robberies
Tonight a Belize City man is claiming to be the lucky survivor of kidnapping, robbery and attempted murder. According to Belize City cops, twenty-five year old Winston “Babunchi” Vernon, a resident of Lizarraga Avenue, was on the street outside his home when a pair of brothers, identified to News 5 as Andrew and Hilliare Bennett, pulled up in a blue Toyota Land Cruiser. Vernon told the authorities that Andrew hit him in the head with a gun and then Hilliare loaded him into the truck. The men drove to an area near the sea in the West Landivar area where Vernon says they robbed him of a gold chain. They then proceeded to hold his head under the water for an unspecified length of time, before finally driving Vernon home and dropping him off. Police have since arrested forty-four year old Hilliare Bennett and thirty-two year old Andrew Bennett and charged both with robbery and attempted murder. Sources tell News 5 a possible motive for the attack was to sweat Vernon for information concerning a previous incident involving the Bennetts.
While police were quick in apprehending two suspected robbers, a thief or thieves have proved elusive following a Sunday afternoon break-in at a grocery store on Freetown Road. According to the proprietor of De He Li, situated at thirty-eight Freetown Road, she had gone out around one o’clock yesterday afternoon. When she returned home about an hour later she found the police at her store, who informed her that someone had broken into the establishment. A check of the area revealed that whoever pulled off the early afternoon heist gained entry to the building by breaking through the burglar bars at the back of the lower flat. Observant neighbours called the police, but by the time the cops arrived, the thief or thieves had already left the area. According to the shopkeeper, the only things she found missing were a pair of ladies watches, other small jewellery items and about six hundred dollars in cash. The police are asking for the public’s assistance in apprehending the person or persons responsible for the burglary and remind the public that buying stolen goods is a felony.
The weekend thievery was not limited to Belize City as bandits in Belmopan held up the Buca Shell Gas Station located in front of the Police Training Academy. According to the manager, Matthew Hulse, four of his employees were in the process of closing up the station around ten o’clock on Saturday night when three masked men brandishing guns held them up and cleaned out their pockets. Hulse says that a check of his inventory revealed that the robbers got away with two cellular phones and a stash of prepaid phone cards and SIM cards. They also relieved the gas attendants of about sixteen hundred dollars in cash. Hulse says that his employees caught a break when a car pulled up at the station while the robbery was in progress and the driver alerted the police. Five minutes later, when the cops showed up, the robbers had bolted. But footprints left on the counter and area leading away from the gas station matched those picked up about a block away in the water reservoir area. The masks and stockings worn by the three robbers to conceal their identity have been recovered about three hundred yards behind the gas station. Hulse says that because of Saturday night’s incident, his employees are refusing to work the late shift and he has decided to close an hour earlier. This is the third time in as many years that the Buca Shell gas station in the nation’s capital has been held up.
