Bomb scare shakes the resolve of workers at Ready Call
Two teenagers were killed in separate incidents when grenades exploded on Mayflower Street and more recently on Kraal Road. It is known that eighteen of twenty-four grenades have not been located since they went missing from the British Forces armory. So when calls were made today to the Ready Call Centre that grenades had been placed in the building, the police and BDF took those threats seriously. Employees were quickly evacuated and services were disrupted for several hours. Duane Moody headed to the centre at the junction of the Burrell Boom Road and found the workers more anxious than scared.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Hundreds of employees of the Ready Call Centre were evacuated following two telephone threats this morning that a grenade would detonate at the centre.
Supt Russell Blackett, Deputy Cmdr., Eastern Police Division
“The first call was made at about ten a.m. and the second call came in at about eleven fifteen. The officer from B.D.F. and myself spoke to the manager and we have explained to them that they need a plan to evacuate into the clear. We do not take these threats lightly and people must move out from the onset.”
Lloyd Godoy, Employee Advocacy Manager, Ready Call Center
“This morning we received a prank call pertaining to a grenade and so as a matter of procedure we contacted the local authorities who let us know that they will have to have everyone evacuate the three buildings so that they can do a check so that’s currently what’s happening. We’re hoping that it will be completed soon so that we can get back in and get back to operations.”
Employee Advocacy Manager, Lloyd Godoy, says that this is not the first threat that the company has received and that he believes the event was triggered by mischief.
Lloyd Godoy
“I believe that it is someone that doesn’t want to work today. It may be a current employee, or maybe a past employee that just wants to disrupt the operations. So we just want to get pass it and get on back with business.”
Duane Moody
“This isn’t a first, I do believe that there has been a threat that the company has faced before?”
Lloyd Godoy
“Some years ago there was a false alarm as well for someone believed to be carrying a bomb but that was a false alarm and so it was resolved pretty quickly and we got back to operations at that time.”
Police officers and the B.D.F. checked the three buildings but did not locate the explosive device. Authorities believe the threat was called in by an employee.
Supt. Russell Blackett
“The expert from the B.D.F. came in and he cleared all four operational buildings at the conclusion more than likely it was mischief.”
Lloyd Godoy
“We provide customer service to American customers and at this time there are a lot of customers that wants to be assisted and so there is downtime for us right now and so we wanna get back inside and start working. Also our employees they are not making any money at this time because everyone’s out here.”
Two hours after the ordeal started, shortly before one p.m., the employees were allowed to return to their offices and jobs. Duane Moody, reporting for News Five.
Ready Call Center employees over eight hundred Belizeans.
