Vendors occupying stalls adjacent to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital are calling on the municipality to provide some form of security for them, as frequent breakages occur.
Just over one dozen vendors have stalls at Garrison Road, Fort Canje, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and have reported frequent breaking and entering into the structures, with the perpetrators carrying away large quantities of items.
In some instances, vendors’ stocks are stolen while on other occasions cooking utensils, gas stoves and gas cylinders are taken by the thieves.
The vendors are seeking the intervention of the municipality since they claim that they pay rent to the New Amsterdam Town Council.
“It is $3000 we have to pay them and they should do something, is every week some stall getting break,” one vendor told this publication.
Sometime between Sunday evening and Monday morning, two stalls were broken into and articles removed.
One vendor, Bibi Khan, told this publication that she discovered that she was the latest victim when she arrived at her business place on Monday morning at about 9:30h.
The door, she said, was wide open.
“My two grandchildren them first saw the door free and a half-open when we swing the turn and they tell my husband the shop break in… they clip the lock,” Khan said.
She said a number of food boxes, spoons, snacks, and a gas bottle were stolen.
“And six sweetie bottles, well stock sweetie bottle. They throw away all them bottles outside,” she disclosed.
The woman estimates her losses to be approximately $110,000.
“I sell out here for several years and bout twelve times now my stand break into and until today I never know is who. I need the Government or Town Council to look into the matter. Because we paying to sell out here and it’s not fair we stand ain’t protect and we life ain’t safe out here,” Khan related.
Last month, Khan’s stall was also broken into and on that occasion, a gas stove and pots were taken away. According to her, during the Christmas season her stall was also broken into.
Another stall owner, Carlie Brandt, explained that when she arrived at her business place, she discovered the lock on the door cut and placed on a bench.
“Even though the lock was cut, they close back the door. So upon entering now, I realised that only snacks were missing. And this is like the fifth time now they breaking into it and they only stealing like snack, and drinks…gas bottle and so is there, which is more expensive,” Brandt said.
“I don’t know what is the reason they are doing this. And we have nobody that we can talk to; there is nobody coming to see. The Town Council does nothing and we really wish if they can look into it. We pay rent here every week, so I think that it’s only fair they do something for us…even if it’s a guard hut or something.”
She estimates her losses at $20,000.
Most of the stalls have been fortified with steel and iron but still, the thieves are able to break into the structures.
According to another owner, between Christmas and this month, her stall was broken into three times. The vendor noted that on one occasion, they broke the locks on the door and were able to get past the iron grill door to enter. She said that on another occasion they cut a hole in the roof and entered the stall, and in yet another, they broke a section of the wooden wall.
“That is why the whole thing is iron now,” she said.
On Friday, another stall was broken into, with the burglars removing a section of the wall to gain entry.
