Burglars hit home of Ladyville Priest
According to Belize City police, on average, everyday three burglaries are reported. But authorities believed many other break-ins go undocumented as homeowners simply double up on security and hope it doesn’t happen again. Over the weekend, one of the latest victims was a priest living in Ladyville. Around six-thirty Saturday evening, Father Oliver Smalls was in the Lady of the Way Roman Catholic Church saying mass when a thief or thieves sawed and ripped their way through the burglar bars of his residence. The priest says among the stolen items was a stash of cash he had been saving to help his parish.
Fr. Oliver Smalls, Our Lady of the Way Church
“Some time between 7:00 and 8:00 in the night someone broke into my house rectory. They had to break through two sets of burglar bars to gain entrance into the house. They searched the place, broke down another door, searched that and found a cash pan that I had some cash and receipts in and also a plastic bag that I had the graduation collection from Wednesday night. I believe the graduates’ collection was about a hundred and something dollars. In the cash pan, there were receipts, some credit cads and about two thousand U.S. dollars in cash that I had been saving since January for my holiday to buy the necessary things that I needed for the parish while I was in the States.”
“When I first came in I didn’t notice anything, I went to refrigerator, took out a piece of chicken and put it in the microwave. And when I looked through the hallway I saw my briefcase and I said to myself that briefcase shouldn’t be there because it’s locked up in the spare room. When I looked, the door was open and I said, “Oh my God there’s a robbery.” Immediately I checked the windows and my back window was the one where they got in. I was shocked, I yelled for my neighbour, he came over, then I went to get the police at once.”
Smalls is asking the public to report anyone seen acting suspiciously near his home on Saturday evening to the nearest police station.
