63 year old woman defiant during robbery

Two women were victims of thieves this week. On Monday, forty nine year old Rosa Tejada, a resident of Dean Street left her home between nine a.m. and four thirty p.m. When she returned she discovered that one thousand three hundred Belize dollars, an additional hundred dollars in other currencies, and two gold chains valued at one thousand two hundred and seventy five dollars were missing from her room. But there’s another incident that has left sixty-three year old Veronica Allen in fright. On Tuesday November twenty seventh, she was accosted by two young men who robbed her, but she braced the thieves and managed to hold on to one earring. She did not wish to appear on camera, and the courageous woman says these types of incidents never happened to the elderly when she was growing up.

Voice of: Veronica Allen, Robbery Victim

“I was coming from my field service ministry and I di come down Magazine Road coming to my home right. And two houses before I reach Vernon Street, these two guys; one on bicycle and one on foot and then they rush me and seh give me dat. And I seh give you what? Dehn seh give me dat and by di time I do my head so, di next one grab mi hand and pop off my bracelet. Den di other one, di lee short one—dah one younger bout sixteen to seventeen soh, di other one on di bicycle is older is like a Rastafarian, he has a hood on his head and he’s darker dan di other one. So while he pop off my bracelet, di other one tek off one ah my earring and I pull out one and I had di other earring in my hands. When he si dat, he seh give me dah next one. I seh no. Ih seh well give me di bag and ih start to haul and di haul di bag and I fight back. So two men were on di other side of the street so to get away from them, I run to across the street to di two men dem right and so di men dehn seh Miss, look how dehn tek weh yoh things. I seh yes and by di time I look di other direction to see where they went, I don’t see them so I don’t know where they turned to. But I know that it was two of them, one short and a tall one and it’s a Rastafarian with a hood on the head. So I came home, shaken up and I tell my son and my husband and my son and my husband ride around to see if they see them but they noh see them again. Later on, my son went back to the spot where I describe ah, and ih find the glass from my glasses and ih come and ih place back di glass; dats why I have my glasses today. I was so shaken up, to tell you the truth, I can’t really describe them the way I want to but I know they’re gonna hit somebody again. But I am so sad about it that it happened to me and I know it’s gonna happen to somebody again.”

Jose Sanchez

You don’t expect this sort of thing to happen to older citizens but you are the second person, woman that it has happened to in the past couple days. Does that frighten you, what the city is coming to?”

Voice of: Veronica Allen

“Oh, plenty because I used to boast about Belize and like me, I am a mother and most of my kids are boys, I love boys. And when I see dem react like dat, like me I thought that they would be the one to protect me as an elderly person so seeing them come to attack me, it really hurt my heart because I look up to them to protect me, not to hurt me. So what else they’re gonna do? they could—I’m just in my sixties, maybe somebody come around eighties or nineties, they’re gonna hurt them too. They don’t care, they don’t respect nobody. This is not Belize because when I was younger, we respect elderly people. We really respect elderly people. We don’t even want cuss around elderly people but that’s what they’re doing today.”