-ties up staff after requesting gold prices, pretending to be customer
A lone gunman, pretending to be a customer at a gold purchasing and trading company, managed to rob the business of $2M in cash and raw gold and also a cellular phone before making good his escape earlier this afternoon.
The robbery under arms took place around 12:30h today at the Emperor Mineral Trading located at Second Avenue, Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).
Reports are that around 12:05h today, a male clad in a plain blue shirt, black short pants and long boots entered the office area with a haversack on his back. He proceeded to enquire from a male employee about the current prices for gold that the business offers and was told by another employee to wait outside of the office.
While the suspect was outside, he was reportedly having a conversation on his cellular phone when one of the two employees approached him and enquired about the purpose of his visit.
The bandit told the staff that he was trying to make contact with a friend who owed him some money and also had gold to sell.
According to a police source, one employee left the premises to purchase lunch while the suspect went into a private office with the other, under the guise to transact business with the company.
It was when the staff momentarily turned his back to the suspect, the man pulled out a rusty gun and ordered him to lay on the ground, and then bound his hands and feet.
After ensuring that the employee that would not hinder him from executing his plan, the suspect then grabbed a Samsung cellular phone valued at $45,000, an undisclosed quantity of raw gold and also an undisclosed amount of cash from the office.
He also damaged the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) inside of the business and then made good his escape on foot.
A report was made to the police and several persons in the vicinity of the business were questioned but no useful information about the suspect was obtained.
Investigators were able to obtain the DVR and have lodged it in order to have its contents extracted from the hard drive. Regional Commander, Senior Superintendent, Linden Lord, when contacted by this publication about the incident stated that investigations are currently ongoing.
