by Charles Gladden
BELMOPAN, Mon. Nov. 13, 2023
The store attendant of Naybaz Store in the San Martin area of Belmopan was the victim of a holdup that occurred at the establishment on Saturday night, November 11, in the presence of three other customers.
According to police reports, at around 10:00 p.m. that Saturday, an unknown male entered the establishment, went to get a beer from the refrigerator, then approached the store attendant, Rebecca Cal of San Martin. He then pulled out a firearm and demanded the day’s earnings along with other items.
Not too long afterwards, another male person entered the store and robbed the customers inside of their money, cell phones, and other valuable items.
Cal, who had been on the job for two weeks, told reporters that when the first robber approached her, he acted as if he was about to purchase the beer, but pulled out the firearm, held a customer hostage, and demanded that two other customers lie on the floor. He then held Cal at gunpoint, demanding money.
“His partner walked in and went right behind the counter where I was, and then he went there and took out all the cash that we had, and I had my two cell phones beside the computer … I was standing there and he grabbed my chain. I kind of like [held] my chain, but then I realized that I thought he was going to shoot me and he had the gun right here on my head, and he said, ‘Give me the chain.’ When I started looking for my chain, he grabbed my blouse and then started looking inside my blouse and pushed his hand inside my blouse to look for it. Then I looked on the floor and the gold chain was on the floor. So, I told him it’s right down there, and then he bent down and he picked up the chain,” she said.
According to Cal, one of the robbers attempted to rob a motorcycle belonging to one of the customers in the store. When the motorcycle didn’t start, however, he pushed it to the ground in frustration and jumped on a motorcycle on which his partner was waiting.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Hilberto Romero, Regional Commander of the Belize Police Department’s Eastern Division, highlighted to local reporters in the weekly police press briefing that Naybaz Store has been targeted by robbers in the past in its various locations countrywide, but this is the first time that the Belmopan store has been targeted.
No suspects have been named as yet.