Two men cleared in Margaritaville heist
(CNS): Police have now confirmed that two men who were arrested at the Cayman Islands immigration office in Elgin Avenue this week, in connection with a robbery at Margaritaville, have been released after being eliminated from the enquiry. The two men were reportedly arrested after staff at the office believed one of the men was the same as those pictured in police photos released to the public on Wednesday afternoon. However, they turned out not to be the men as pictured left. Pictures from CCTV footage were circulated following an armed daylight robbery which had taken place at the down town George Town bar and restaurant on Friday 16 October at 8.30am.
The robbers armed with a knife and a gun threatened staff and escaped with more than $20,000. This incident, along with a number of other gun crimes, caused the RCIPS to initiate a high-profile policing initiative which has led to a visible increase in foot patrol officers in the centre of George Town.
Police said the investigations into this and other high profile crimes are continuing.
Category: Local News
Well that sucks.
Cayman Taliban you speek for yourself and not me as a Caymanian. You describe yourself well but you forgot to add FOOL at the end of your name.
Boy, I tell you! That is exactly why we need expats here, because the way some of you think, I cant imagine people like you running our country. I agree with you to an extent, maybe there should not be as MUCH, but to say NO expats at all is just stupid. You tell me now, have you ever gone into Burger King, Wendy’s and so on and see Caymanian’s in there. Maybe 1 or 2, you know why, because us Caymanians, believe that we wipe our a$$’s with clouds out of the sky, so we cant go in there and make $6.50 an hour, oh no! If it’s not $3,000 a month, we dont want it. People just come here and take advantage of what we DONT want, a better life and a job, as menial as it may be.
We behind you 100% Cayman Taliban they should have a monitoring bracelet so we know way the critters are at all time. what gives with this release but yet they are still holding the Caymanians for the Quick cash
All expat should be made to wear a uniform depending on what country they come from so they can be identified more easily.
They should not be here in the first place, but if they have to be here they should have a Caymanian supervisor to keep an eye on them all the time. Once the sun goes down all expats should be locked up in a camp. That would stop the crime.
Yah, right! and a tattoo on their forehead that lights up in the dark, a neck brace that would blow their heads up when do go beyond a certain parameter, or an anklet that would sound an alarm once you go out of the camp.
You are also right that expats should not be here in the first place if natives, born and bred, are ready, willing and able to do what the expats can do.
Last but not the least, A Caymanian Supervisor is also a good idea, this way, they have something to do.
And if you still don’t get it, I’m not the one who’s going to point it out to you.
This is obviously an expat’s idea of parody.
really? you think?
Haha really? Should each side (expats and Caymanians) be made to wear badges too? Maybe a star and a swastika?
Take a look at history, it didn’t turn out all that well did it?
You’re ridiculous
Cayman Taliban you are a real IDIOT! It is people like you that make true caymanians like myself look STUPID!
All expats are not bad and the reason we as a small country have so many of them is because most of them are hardworking, honest individuals and will do the jobs we as Caymanians are too PROUD to do! Another reason is because we as a small country do not have the qualificaitons for certain jobs.
Putting people into a camp to be locked away at night is inhummane and only the innocent would suffer. Do you realize most of these people have children, wives, husbands just as we do? They are PEOPLE just like me and you!
Also it is not only the expats committing the crime in fact it has been alot of our own youth! Why because 1 the economy, 2 laziness 3 jobs are getting harder and harder to obtain. Stop and think before you make statements like the previous one as it is not called for!
If you were a Caymanian you’d know with 90% certainty the nationality of these people. This is how well we know each other. Trust me on that. You can look at a person and often tell who they are related to. That’s the benefit of living in a small place where everyone is connected.
Most of us can tell what district they are from and often times what specific family as well.
This is not JAM with 3 million people. We have a small population with only about 15,000 being from Caymanian familes. It’s NOT that hard to figure out where they are from despite what you think.
Profiling is a new tool that we can use to help investigations. So, we know they are not Caymanians and given the largest size of the Jamaican population as well as their propensity towards criminal activity I would bet my last dollar on them being from JAM.
Now keep in mind, they could be Haitians etc. but I seriously doubt that. Any honest Jamaican and they will also confirm to you that they are like Jamaican as well.
I have no idea why people are afraid to speak the truth? It is what it is my friends. So get over it. Profiling is used by the Israeli army, US government agencies and others all around the world. So why can’t we use it?
9:59 I totally agree with your comment.
As an honest Jamaican, I would like to ask you to consider the offensive nature of your statement, "given the largest size of the Jamaican population as well as their propensity towards criminal activity I would bet my last dollar on them being from JAM."
I have no such "PROPENSITY TOWARDS CRIMINAL ACTIVITY" than you have to do crack and have children with your family members (insestuously). Just because some Jamaicans are unscrupulous doesn’t mean that ALL, or even the majority are. Jamaica has around three million people, it is ignorant for you to assume that every Jamaican has the propensity to do the same.
I’ve had bad experiences with Caymanians but I am intelligent enough to know that I can’t judge my Caymanian friends – who are very nice people – by those dishonest and ignorant people. I humbly submit that any intelligent person would agree that there are good and bad people everywhere.
I am with you with most of your comments. However, while it is true that Jamaica has a large cirminal element, I think it is unfair to say that the Jamaican population as a whole has a propensity towards criminal activity.
It is definitely true that there are subtle clues as to person’s nationality which are not necessarily reducible to skin colour which only persons who have lived among them for a long while will detect.
Well how come in the 99% of crimes where the culprit is Caymanian ‘nobody saw nutthin’?
If everybody knew everybody, somebody would have recognised the Caymanian shooter in Next level or the Caymanian shooters of other gangsters around Georgetown and West Bay.
If you didn’t spend so much time with your head up your backside you would realise that it is the children of these nice Caymanian families that are committing the crimes and raping, murdering, dealing, robbing and not the hard working jamaicans that come here to serve you and build for you.
All the immigrants have to be police checked before they come here. Whislt this is in no way a secure process it does cut the likelihood of criminals coming here.
Why don’t you do the honest thing and tell the police what you know. Even if it is your own family members, it is not right to shield them and they should repay society for their crimes.
The pictures that were released to the public were of poor quality and not too defined to give the public a clear picture of who was committing this robbery. The pictures of the men could look like any hundreds of people that we know or pass by daily in the public so now we end up with these 2 innocent men being incarcerated for a crime that someone else was responsible for. How many more innocent people will continue to be pointed out and arrested based on these flimsy photos being circulated? The photos should be enhanced so that we can have a clearer picture of who these thugs are so we can eliminate them from our society. I see a lot of public apologies & lawsuits following repeated arrest and public humiliation of innocent individuals based on this so called camera evidence.
What you said. I feel so much more secure knowing that the Chamber of Commerce is pushing for CCTV on the street corners and all bussinesses (my description, not theirs). CCTV works sooo well in other countries.
(More community police, including in the bussiness community, is what is needed – in case anyone objects to my objection because I don’t provide an alternative solution. Its not as cheep but I believe it will be more effective at detering thieves if they now theres a chance a police officer will be on the spot as a crime is committed rather than trying to find them later based on grainy bad-angle pictures.)
"The photos should be enhanced…"
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but what you see on TV and the movies is not reality.
To: Joe, Did you review all of the ‘Facts’ before writing your comment? Or, perhaps, are you just trying to turn this into something it isn’t?
Racial Profiling? Look at the pictures. Nationality? Did you read the witness description in the CNS article?
The time has come again to remind the ‘Powers-that-be’, that much greater efficiency would be achieved IF ONLY we were to do what the US has done with their Immigration and Law Enforement.
Photograph and Fingerprint EVERYONE. Whether you are a visitor, or Resident. From you enter these islands, get a Work Permit, Drivers’ License, Passport, National ID, get the information, and have it in a Central Data-base, where it can be compiled on everyone.
We are small enough to make this an almost Painless process, and I see why no Law-abiding citizen would have an issue with this, as there is NO Invasion of Privacy.
RW,
I object because it would not work. Just like a pair of thieves didn’t walk into another building wearing the same clothes they would just start wearing gloves and masks (or pulling their caps lower) when their biometrics are databased. Even Britain is recognising that National IDs wont increase security.
I further object because it will be an invasion of my privacy. Whenever someone takes previously private information from me (my finger prints for example), databases it and uses it for some purpose that counts as an invasion of my privacy.
If you feel it would be such a good service for the Law Abiding, suggest a voluntary picture/fingerprint/DNA/immigration database so you don’t have to worry about false positives roping you into a police investigation. As a law abiding citizen I’d rather rely on the police findingthe criminals by other means than accidentally pulling my fingerprint as a partial match and then trying to see how I fit. Like the last ‘latent’ print that ended a fellow up in court for murder. (He was declared innocent IIRC; take from that case what lessons you will on the need for better investigative techniques by local police.)
Obviously a fingerprinting requirement will improve crime detection. We will all have to give up some measure of our rights if we are to combat crime. That is a reality.
Both of these men touch the railing entering into the building. Am wondering if the Police lifted any fingerprints and if so this case is a rap. I guess the Police Department does not have a fingerprint database in placed in order to arrest these men.
I hope that they catch these criminals because they are worthless thieves and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law and the judge should not show any leniency or reduce any time!
I wonder if Margaritaville has their video footage from a few weeks ago because these guys must have come there to scope out the place and see where everything is and then plan it and pull it off as quickly and accurately as they seem to have done. Look at the photos/cctv video for the past month and I’m sure that the perpetrators were in there at least once or twice. This is of course just a thought and would more likely work if these criminals are residing or were residing here, otherwise this theory is of course out. The police hopefully are thinking about every scenario!
COMMENTS 23:10 I wonder if Margaritaville has their video footage? This is a very sensible question and comments.
We have to stope being nieve. People do not just walk off the streets and rob your business or home. They visit, watch, eat drink and mix before. Everyone is planned. Management will need to spend some time watching unusual looking persons visiting their business places, spending two three hours and only having two beers and frenchfries. Chatting with employees to get information. All that is done. They are crooks, !!!! that is why they do these things. Move your cameras, Videoing head tops is no use. Put your cameras right in front of your cash register instead of up in the ceiling. Some classic business with lots of money wil definately need to start thinking of installing close circuit back door to front door, cash register and hidden in bathroom cameras. Havent been watching the moves or what.
I’ve been diligently reading the posts on this issue and from the minute I saw the story (Compass) that the men were arrested because the witness thought they were dressed in the same outfit, I thought, "how silly!" Who is going to rob an estalishment of $20, 000 and almost a week later walk right into Immigration in the same outfit that is being circulated around the island? Those men were picked up because they were black Jamaicans, simple!
"Those men were picked up because they were black Jamaicans, simple!"
LOL! Then they should have picked up the other 5,000 black Jamaican males as well! This is not a North American city where Jamaicans are a small minority. This is Cayman where they are a large segment of the population. Obviously they had to be looking beyond whether they were black Jamaican males.
Your reference seems to allude to the American legal standpoint of Detention vs Arrest. You will, of course, be aware that we source our fundamental legal principles from UK legislation and therefore the terms referred to are different.
Arrest, in short, is the taking of somebody’s liberty to answer a suspected or alleged offence or crime. Detention could be deemed a pre-cursor to arrest in order to establish or enhance the reasonable grounds to make the aforementioned arrest, i.e. when stop/searching someone. The person is ‘detained’ for the purpose of the search and then ‘arrested’ should certain articles or prohibited items be discovered as a result of the search. If the grounds for the search cease, for a variety of reasons, then the person’s detention is ended and they are free to go about their business.
In conclusion, if a person is brought to the police station against their will then an arrest would have had to have been made.
What are we doing?
We need to grow above stereotyping and racial profiling. The Cayman Islands is bless and despite what some might think law abiding citizen will always have the upper hand.
We can work together to ride the community of criminals but only if we think and act logically.
From experience the photos are not conclusive to determine what nationality these criminals are and very sure the FBI will agree.
Criminals are outsmarting us and will use all means to avoid been captured.
I am certain the technology exist to do a facial reconstruction to have a very much accurate picture of these guys.
You certainly dont expect that the RCIP will solve this crime do you?????????