Home invasion in Belize City
Turning to crime, home invasions: it’s the term for armed attacks on families in the confines of their homes. And these types of crimes seem to be getting more frequent throughout the country. Thursday night was the most recent invasion upstairs of Tow Tow Grocery on Fairweather Street in Belize City. The victims were elderly mother and her daughter – both Belizean Americans vacationing from Los Angeles. The incident happened quite early in the night, while seventy-two year old Olive Arnold was in her bed watching the local news. Her daughter, Rose Holland, was on the front porch with a cousin while the thieves entered through the back door. The mother and daughter arrived in town only Wednesday and have been returning to Belize every year since 1985. Holland feels the culprits had been planning to pounce since the day they arrived and the experience has shaken them up so much that they are not coming back home in a hurry.
Olive Arnold, Victim of Home Invasion
“This person come over me and tell me be quiet. Now I’m not going to be quiet, then he go like – I couldn’t see his face, he have on a brown cap and a brown shirt and ih gun. And ih tell me be quiet and I tell him I’m not going to be quiet and I scream. I holler for them out there and by the time they come to the door, one in a white t-shirt follow the other one and they all run downstairs.”
Rose Holland, Victim of Home Invasion
“I heard my mom screaming so I thought maybe she fall so I ran in here and when me and Ms. Carol get to the door the guy standing here and point the gun so we took off back. And they ran behind us and start chasing us. All three of us fall down on the ground and they jump on me and say give me everything you got. They tried to pull my bracelet off and they scratched my hand. When they couldn’t get this off they popped my Rolex chain off my neck. And they tackled my girlfriend. And she tell them do you guys know who I am. I’m the mother of so and so. And they say they don’t care and they popped her chain off too. And then they hopped the fence back and they left.”
Olive Arnold
“First, I was gonna come back home and live, now I tell them no I cannot because the younger generation them is scandalous. I cannot come back home to live. They take guns like you’re birds in the air – pop, you know, I’m scared for my life. I’m not coming back in a hurry right now but I have to come back, but not to live.”
Rose Holland
“I came in Wednesday and I guess when they saw me came in, they saw my car and saw my jewelry and stuff cause I usually wear a lot of jewelry when I come to Belize. But for one time this year I decided only to wear a few. And one of my neighbours told me be careful because they are watching you, be careful. She told me that the morning, which was yesterday morning. Then in the night, that’s what made me went on the porch, they called me again, be careful because I guess they hear the plot of what’s going on, so they’re advising me. How could they have the audacity to just walk in a person’s home with a gun and look and an ageable lady, be quiet. That is wrong.”
The women say they don’t know who their attackers were but they feel they were held up by two men in their twenties who live in the same area. Holland said the thieves also stole her cell phone which was in her bedroom near the back door. While police have not yet retrieved any of the stolen items, they have detained four suspects. Police believe that while only two committed the robbery, it was planned by the four suspects. And while they are in custody now, they are concerned that there will be retaliation because the other victim who was visiting the home at the time is the mother of a notorious George Street character.
