Thieves caught on surveillance after robbing boutique
Two men, believed to be in their fifties, were captured on surveillance camera just after robbing a Boutique at Saffon and Sussex Streets, Charlestown, Georgetown around 08:00 hrs on Sunday.
The men made off with more than $130,000 in boots and clothing from Lady B’s Fashion owned by Barbara Nedd.
On the footage, they were seen stopping traffic to cross over to Sussex Street and continued walking east towards Lombard Street—this was two minutes after each other. The stolen items were packed in big bags.
One of the thieves has dreadlocks, gray beard, wore a camouflage hat, and faded blue pants and orange jersey with white lining. He had a one strap bag across his back with a large black bag in his left hand.
His accomplice, the one who first left the boutique, wore a pair of blue long pants, grey and white hat, blue pants and jersey. He had one bag slung across his back and another one in his hand as he was seen hurriedly stopping a car to cross the busy road.
Recalling what transpired, Nedd said that she was in her boutique, arranging stocks when the two men entered and immediately fell in love with a few boots she had for sale.
“They ask how much and I say $10,000 and they were like ‘so cheap?’ and the one with the gray beard asked me if I gon give he a discount if he buys all,” Nedd related.
She said that she looked at the “gray beard man” and asked if he could afford to purchase all the boots to which he answered in the affirmative.
The “gray beard bandit” walking away with Nedd’s stocks
The first thief who left the scene
“He said, ‘Lady, I is somebody that got business in Bartica, and Bartica is not like town, is sheer gold people there, and is plenty more things I come to buy once I like it’ so right away I start taking down clothes to show him,” Nedd related.
The woman said that at no point did she think she was falling into a trap, since the men were “old” and she thought that there was no way they were going to rob her.
According to Nedd, the “gray beard” bandit was “supposedly” the businessman, while his accomplice was his worker.
She said that while she was inside the boutique attending to the “gray beard” bandit, his accomplice was outside, packing her stocks into bags.
“The one inside made me think he buying big, so I taking down all the brand name clothes I got and writing down on paper and I giving he bags to pack the things in,” said the woman, who has been operating at that location for more than nine years.
When the clothes became too much to be loaded into bags, the older man asked for a suitcase.
While Nedd was attending to the man, other customers entered the boutique, but she paid little attention to them since she thought, “the Bartica businessman was lottery.”
Barbara Nedd in front of her Boutique yesterday
“When I checked, it came up to $126,000 and he tell me to bring more, that he got more money,” Nedd said, without hesitation, she brought out all her brand name clothes and showed it to the man.
As she was searching for clothing, the woman said that the elderly man went to the front of the boutique and shouted, “Don’t forget the dried shrimp, we got to get it.” She is convinced this was his signal to tell his accomplice to leave.
“He come in back and ask me if I got short pants, because Bartica got regatta, so I tell he I ain’t know about that and he said yes, that I should get the pants because dem ladies gon want look sexy.”
While Nedd was searching for the pants, the suspect escaped with the items. She said that he was packing some stocks in a large bag and some in suitcases—he left the suitcase behind and made off with the bag.
When she noticed the men had escaped with her stocks, she ran to the market but failed to locate them. She subsequently made a report to the Ruimveldt Police Station.