A money changer and a market stallholder were on Friday morning robbed at gunpoint by a lone bandit outside the Corriverton Market in Berbice.
The incident occurred at about 07:45h, shortly after the Corriverton Market had opened up for business.
Daneshwar Pananlall called ‘Peter’, a money changer, was relieved of $500,000 in both local and foreign currency; while stallholder, Vibert Dan, was relieved of in excess of $20,000.
“He just come up and go into the bag and take out the gun and point it to me and then go into my pocket and pull out the money,” the stallholder related. He noted that the bandit also took a wallet containing important documents from him.
Meanwhile, Pananlall recounted that the gun was then pointed to him and the gunman then went through his pockets and removed the money he was carrying. His phone was also taken away.
Dan futher related that as the lone gunman was about to escape, $1,000 bill had dropped on the ground so he (Dan) bent down to pick it up but the bandit turned back and grabbed it.
Money chargers and other business persons, who carry on business at the front of the Market’s main access gate and who would normally have large sums of money in their possession, are normally on the alert.
However, no attention is paid to persons coming from inside of the Market.
The suspect had used another entrance and went into the Market before coming to the Main gate where Pananlall and Rambaraj were seated.
Following the robbery, the bandit escaped on a bicycle and had a sizeable head start before he was perused.
Several persons mounted motorbikes and went in pursuit of him but he was not seen.
Police were contacted and joined the hunt but up to Friday evening, there was no report of the suspect’s arrest.
Back in January Pananlall was also attacked and robbed while on his way to the market. He was relieved of $3M in both local and foreign currency including Canadian, Suriname Dollars (SRD) and US dollars by three men armed with cutlasses and a stick. No one was arrested for that robbery.
