Bicycle thief fined $5000
Enrique Alvarez
A seventy-five dollar bicycle has turned out very expensive for twenty-one year old Enrique Alvarez, who admitted in court today that he stole it from Oscar Portillo. He pleaded guilty to a charge of Theft, saying that he jacked the bike because he needed money and intended to sell it. But now Alvarez must pay a fine of five thousand dollars by the end of March or spend five years in jail. In court Alvarez was candid about the crime and told the court that on Saturday he headed downtown on the job hunt. Alvarez says he noticed Portillo on Cemetery Road, who is about the same height as him and crept up behind him, knocked him off the bike and rode off with it. Portillo set chase and was ready to fight for his bike, but Alvarez says he didn’t want to fight, he just needed the money. Bystanders in the area intervened and subdued Alvarez until a police mobile arrived to take him in. Before imposing the hefty fine, Magistrate Emerson Banner asked Alvarez what he thought would be fair punishment, and he responded that he didn’t want to go back to jail because they don’t serve healthy food there.
Emerson, just give the smiling crackhead more crack & let him stop by your house when he runs out, that would be a fair punishment. Why was he not charged with assault, he hit the man in order to take away his bicycle. Thanks Belizeans for not standing by & being spectators, take those streets back.
Shame on the media, they media tried to portray this story with a sense of humour either as a stress free mechanic or just lack of taste. Ignorance is bliss, for those who know no better.
Either way, this story should be treated with the seriousness the Bicycle thief conducted in his plot to What if this crack-head had decided to put up a fight for the bike he stole?
This idiot is loud and violent, if not annoying. Five years is hardly enough.
@ BZNinCALI…all that may not be true,this guy isn’t no crackhead,,,dis guy needed some quick $ to put food on the table…
This is BELIZE, if you steal/thief a bike or anything petty, you will get 5yrs. If you THIEF MILLIONS of $ from the people of Belize, you will get praised…..
NO JUSTICE FOR THE POOR
mrbrad “Alvarez says he noticed Portillo on Cemetery Road, who is about the same height as him and crept up behind him, knocked him off the bike and rode off with it”.
Poor people stealing from poor people is no more acceptable than what the big shots are doing. This bicycle was just as important to the man who was riding it as a car is to someone with money.
This is an unrepentant theif. the person he assaulted to teif the bike was working trying to make and honest living. he deserves what he got and more, the citizens that caught him should have beat his #@$%
He didn’t want to go to jail because they don’t serve healthy food – well, we taxpayers are sorry that you won’t be serving your sentence in a Penthouse Suite at the Radisson Fort George. So sue us!!!! You did the crime – do the time… As for mrbrad’s comments – He obviously has ‘previous form’, in other words, is known to the Police, hence the harsh penalty. i agree that the rich that thieve millions don’t get jailed, but until the whole system is changed, that’ll always be the case. If belizeans would unite anf fight for change, change would happen, but everyone is too busy lining their own nests to unite.
HANG THIS !@#$ SUCKER!!!! He have no shame!!!
I think the best punishment for this no good scum is hanging, or in fact they should break both his hands, chop off five his five fingers from his right hand and plucked out one of his eyes.
He admitted he did the crime, sounds like we wanted so desperately to get back behind bars… As for the prison food, those low lifes eat better than any of us out here as from what im hearing… that privately run prison is serving restaurant quality food which is quite quite healthy…things rough out here nowadays…it wouldn’t surprise me if he committed the crime just to get caught so he can go back to prison and live off the government and our hard earned tax dollars. Do you know how much of your tax dollars goes into maintaining one prisoner for a year? Last time i heard it was around $5000BZ per inmate per year….yup that much do the math….i wonder what percentage of that money is going to the Colbe foundation? hmmm……Should start hanging some of them…would require less spending and free up much needed prison space….
if we can’t hang him……………..SEND HIM TO THE PRISON FARM.
THERE HE CAN EARN HIS KEEP AND PROVIDE FOR THE REST OF SOCIETY.
BUILD THE PRISON FARM IN TOLEDO……………….
Thank the citizens who intervened and help catch this bum. Now there is one less criminal on our streets, keep up the good work and we can change Belize for the better.