Breakin at airport prompts security review
Whoever they were, they’ve vanished without a trace with a bundle of money. Tenants of the Belize International Airport were stunned to show up to work today only to find that their establishments had been broken into during the night. This despite the fact that around five a.m. today, security officers on duty called their security chief, Louis Escobar to inform him that Toucan Gift Shop, Tropical Tees and the Belize Bank Airport Branch had been vandalized. The empty cash registers weren’t ringing but the buzz at the airport today was “inside job”.
Louis Escobar, Chief of Security
“From the circumstances of the incident, I would say that it’s probably someone who, if not works at airport, lives in the immediate area of the airport for them to study the means of the patrolling, the way the officers patrol at night. I could say probably that these people have been studying our patrolling system and they have found a way to evade our patrols.”
There were three officers on duty from six last evening to six this morning. A thorough inspection of the premises today failed to reveal how the thief — or thieves — got in and out of the building.
Carmita Johnson, Sales Manager, Tropical Tees
“I think this is really poor. Being just a big airport like this and just two security guards last night, haven’t gotten any names as to who was working or whatever and I think we should have a right to know that.”
The two gift shops say they have reported money missing before to the chief security officer but were told no one could break into the terminal building.
Michelle Williams, Toucan Gift Shop
“In his regard, it was “highly impossible” stated by him that anyone could have broken into the stores, you know. That was his comment, that it was “highly impossible” that anyone could get
into the gift shops.”
Q: “What do you think he was implying when he said that?”
Michelle Williams
“Inside job. Like he was blaming us for money lost.”
Q: “So you all were not surprised today then?”
Michelle Williams
“Not really.”
Janelle Chanona
“The businesses here at the Belize International Airport say they don’t know whether to believe that this was a spur of the moment attack or a well planned burglary. Just days ago on September twenty-eighth they received this letter from the Belize Airport Authority informing them they would need to be responsible for the security of their stores.”
Carmita Johnson
“It’s really strange. I mean to get a letter and then the night, you know, we close up our stores every night the same way.
What I understand from this letter is that we are responsible for our security of our store and they didn’t say that. If they had come out outright and say that probably our boss would have hired our own security to stand at our door.”
Louis Escobar
“Probably it’s coincidental but what we are trying to say to these people that they must insure their business in the way of putting on proper locks. We all know that locks will not stop a thief; a lock is only there to slow down a thief. Overall, our security is responsible for the overall security of the airport and all these businesses.”
Escobar says the previous reports about missing money were investigated but since no doors or windows had been broken, he called it a mystery and left it at that. But today’s empty cash pans and broken locks were anything but mysterious and left no question in the minds of the business owners that there is not enough security for the building.
Louis Escobar
“Our security, we need to improve our system; we need to get more manpower on the job to work at night. This is the only way I believe that we will probably minimize the chances of thieves coming into the airport and break in.”
Tropical Tees lost three hundred dollars while Toucan Gift Shop says they have yet to determine the amount of money left in the register. Both stores say they will conduct an inventory to verify if any merchandise was stolen. News Five was unable to get a comment from the Belize Bank about the burglary. Starting tonight, a security officer will be posted inside the building. Escobar says he foresees no problem in getting the extra manpower to secure the building and will meet with the tenants on Monday to discuss additional security measures.
