Wesley College hit by armed robbers

Belize City police say shortly after one this afternoon, two brazen young men walked into the compound of Wesley Junior College, went upstairs and robbed acting dean Winsome Arana and college principal Brenda Armstrong of thousands of dollars. The money had been collected from students who had gone to the institution to register. According to Armstrong, at first she thought it was students pulling a prank but it did not take long before she realized the awful truth.

Belize City police say shortly after one this afternoon, two brazen young men walked into the compound of Wesley Junior College and upstairs into the offices of the Caleb Cousins Building and robbed the Acting Dean Winsome Arana and the college principal Brenda Armstrong of thousands of dollars. The money collected from students who had gone to the institution to register. According to Armstrong, at first she thought it was students who were pulling a prank but it did not take long before she realized they were being held up.

Brenda Armstrong, Principal, Wesley High School
“We were in the office and I saw one young man come on the verandah pointing a gun at the security we had hired and I couldn’t quite tell what was going on so I said what’s happening there? And another one then came to the door of the office and pointed a gun at us and told us hand over everything we have. Nobody moved because we really thought this must not be serious but we realized it was serious when we were told to go down on the floor and we were then relieved of all that we had collected.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“How much money was stolen?”

Brenda Armstrong
“Approximately eleven thousand dollars, just between the morning and midday.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“The school didn’t take better measures in protecting the money that you knew would have been collected from today’s registration?”

Brenda Armstrong
“We considered our options. At the high school we had instituted a new system of registration at the bank, but we looked at our numbers and the junior college is really small and we considered then using the armed security that is available as a service or for hire. So we went with that option with provisions for not keeping beyond a certain number of our receipts. Unfortunately, the plan for the first delivery of those monies did not go through; otherwise they would not have gotten what they got. It was not supposed to even be here by that time. We had a plan in place, Mrs. Arana, myself, had discussed what best to do and we felt we were so quiet about the registration. There was no public announcement about this registration at all.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“But somehow word got out?”

Brenda Armstrong
“Well, our students know, so word can get out”

Jacqueline Godwin
“How the college plans to recover from this?”

Brenda Armstrong
“As best as we can. I’m sure that the likelihood or the possibility of us recovering those monies is very slim. So, some budgeted item might have to be revisited. It’s unfortunate, but we’ll try and do our best.”