Gang of robbers hit Shoppe
(CNS): One man has been arrested following an armed robbery in West Bay last night in which a group of four or five men held staff and other people at gun point and made off with cash, cell phones and passports. Police said that at 8:33pm officers responded to a report that The Shoppe, at the junction of Watercourse and North West Point Road, had been robbed. The suspects first attempted to rob a cashier who had been outside the shop. A man threatened the victim with a handgun and demanded money. He then focused on other workers and people who were also outside. They were all then held at gunpoint by two other men armed with what appeared to be a shotgun and another handgun. During this time they were robbed of their cell phones.
Simultaneously, two other men entered the shop and robbed other workers who were inside the store, police said, and an undisclosed amount of cash and some passports were stolen. The suspects were seen to leave the location in a white Ford Explorer the first numbers being taken as N132.
Following a search by police, this vehicle was located and shortly afterwards police said that a man was was arrested. He remains in custody this morning whille enquiries continue.
Police are appealing for any witnesses or information to West Bay CID on 949-3999 or Crime Stoppers on 800-8477
Category: Headline News
Until our education minister clears the fog from his mind and stops hiding behind the foolish claim of unemployability of his own people, all the while allowing cheap sub-standard labour to be imported to undermine Caymanians of the opportunity to secure jobs, and no doubt, in some instances importing to add to the criminal element in the country, crime will continue to grow and there is little that will stop it. Very sad.
Until jobs are equally distributed amongst the local population and until foreign amimosity is eradicated and until the leaders refrain from individualism there is a recipe for technical and organised crime as we see is escalating with impunity. Good Luck Cayman !!
Does this mean that some "others" were tourists? I am getting scared to come to the Island. This is unbelievable. I live in the States and the crime here does not seem to be as bad as Cayman, when you compare the amount of people. While we do have crime, the percentage can’t possibly be as high as Cayman because our population is high! They need to clean this beautiful Island of the bad seeds. This is totally going to ruin tourism, which eventually will ruin Grand Cayman! So so sad! The community needs to get involved to stop this crime. They need to bring outsiders in to go and find the weapons. It really can’t be that hard….the area is small. They have cleaned up areas in the USA that have populations in the millions, Cayman should be fairly easy to clean up. Regardless if they are native or expat, it doesn’t matter, someone knows these people..some innocent person knows these people but is probably afraid for their life. Teens knows these people, but they think it be cool to hang out with thugs. These teens have parents who know who they are hanging out with, but again scared….etc…it is one vicious cycle, but can be fixed. It can be fixed if the police, and the people work together. This is not because of a bad economy, this is because these thugs think it is fun now, they have gotten away with crime, they make an easy paycheck now! It is not because of drugs, because these type of crimes are not done by drug users, they are done by drug dealers and leaders. Sorry Cayman, I hope all of your problems get resolved soon!
It is clear to see that the robbing will continue because the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. If they are caught it is just a slap on the wrist or the behind and what they probably told reminds me of what one of my old primary school teachers would say if they were punishing you, "If you do this again I will make you stand in the hot sun outside with your hand over your head ". What a punishment for stealing some pencil or lunch money and can you imagine this robbing of other people’s property is a thousand times worse. The gish of the matter is until we have a no tolerance attitude in the courts for robberies especially those by gunpoint then it will continue to happen. We give them too little of sentence when they are brought to court and to top it off sent to the 5 star prison where they are treated like royalty. They eat better and more balanced meals than a school child, there is no hard labor I mean the kind that they are shackled at the ankles put out in the blistering hot sun and made to keep out roads cleaned,do a some dirty work, all the govt properties would be maintained by them like washing windows etc just where the public could see them or maybe some a little more inhumane gving them a good bullwhip flogging out in public every month for a long as they are sentenced to jail. Get the message make them pay for their crime stop breast feeding them. Too many people lives are being put at risk with their violence that is taking place and believe or not you don’t know who is next.
We blame and persecute the police but put yourself in their shoes and create a scenario in your mind going to confront a robber, who has some kind of weapon and you have none.
Maybe our courts needs to see what punishment other Caribbean countries are handing down because I am quite sure it is not as light as ours.
Which Caribbean countries? They have worse crimes than we do – and don’t forget that some of the most horrendous crimes here were committed by other Caribbean nationals! Maybe their crime dropped because some criminals relocated.
They can’t stop us now, the arming of foreign Police and its ramifications will and has extend far beyond Commissioner Baines and the failed policies and strategies of the RCIPS high command. The concerted and conspiratorial program by certain elements to remove capable expat and Caymanian officers and the installation of loyal corrupt cronies has been a great success but unfortunately Cayman has paid and is paying the price daily. If we can’t control crime with the current population it would be foolish to follow our grand Premier’s population expansion program. What will we do then McKeeva, buy another helicopter i guess?
Let us see if charges are put to the chap that has been detained. I for one would also like to see if the lad from the Butterfield hiest is brought to charges too.
Arming the Police here on this Island is a bad idea. David Baines is right; not on the fact that the criminals will carry guns if the Police are armed as a daily routine, but arming these guys that wear a uniform for the most part is worse then what we are dealing with in terms of crime.
I’ve heard from some pretty smart West Bayers that this was a dress rehearsal for a bigger operation. It was the opinion of one of the bystanders that it looked well organized and that the crowd control inside and out was a practice for sadly a bigger robbery.
I’m American and know it goes against all UK beliefs to arm our police, but I think the time has come for armed patrols to stop and search anyone for guns and drugs.
New York City was once rampant with crime….now it is deemed the safest large city in North America…..they had 20 million people and cleaned it up, WHAT DID THEY DO?
arming the police wont change a thing. they already show up hours after the incidents occur in the first place, so they are basically deemed useless.
showing up to a crime scene locked and loaded with no suspects or criminals. yep, thats always efficient plus i dont think any of them can even be trusted-_-. but if they were armed would it really make a difference? i think not.
I guess you can do a much better job right????
It is very easy to judge and talk about those who are trying to do something. Why don’t you join the RCIP and make the "difference".
Hmm, robbing passports and cellphones? Easy to tell these are not local robbers. It is well known that cell phones area favourite item of thieves and robbers in a neighbouring country and I can’t passports being high on the list of a Caymanian robber. The description of the vehicle should help police even if the registration plate number is confusing (reads like a US aircraft registration!!).
So now, if RCIPS can’t narrow this one down and make an arrest then perhaps it’s time to wonder who they are protecting.
In the wake of yet ANOTHER daylight armed robbery, we as the people of the Cayman Islands, are DEMANDING continuous armed police presence ON FOOT at all of the major public locations within Grand Cayman.
We have over 200 officers, and not one in sight during such episodes, will we wait until an innocent bystander is shot and killed before a proactive approach is taken in attempt of subsiding these constant crimes!?!?!?!?
We pay our police force a hefty salary for us to feel safe and secure, so far I think we would do better putting that money elsewhere!!! SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE AND NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There 400 ofiicers, nor 200
That makes it worst then!
I think the police force needs to go on strike and let all of those idiots who think they can do better get out of their fri&*^% bed at night and find these robbers.
The crime fighters are paid to fight crime. The public is not. If there are mysteries being solved, murderers caught, convictions made, we’d love to hear about it from the RCIPS press secretary. It would be very refreshing to chronicle the achievements of all of these do-gooders in our employ.
did Fosters Airport just get robbed?
CNS: No, Fosters released this earlier:
Foster’s Food Fair IGA –Airport Location Robbed
Foster’s Food Fair IGA would like to diffuse any rumors that have been circulating that suggest our Airport Center location was robbed. This is in fact inaccurate and untrue. We have not heard or witnessed any such event occurring at this store or any of our other four locations. We are focused on providing our customers with accurate information and ensuring their safety. If an incident like this had occurred we would report it to all necessary parties.
We would like to thank the public for their concern and we hope this has clarified any misinformation that has been floating around.
I believe we should impliment in our laws deterrences for criminals who do not give up their other partners.
Say we catch someone who has just committed a bank robbery and it was determined that there were 4 participants in the robbery. The one person caught has gone to court and has been found guilty. He is not giving up the other assailants. Now it’s time for sentencing.
Sentencing of this should be based on whether he has given up the other assailants. If he has not then I believe he should serve the sentence for them. So say you would normally give him 10 years then he should be sentenced for 40 years. Now this does not mean that the others can not be sentenced but if he decides to give them up later say within 3 months of sentencing then his/her sentence will be adjusted taking that the others can be apprehended. This could be incorporated into sentencing and I would give him a time frame of say NO MORE than 3 months. He should also be told that if they are caught without his help his sentence will not be reduced.
There can be times when it’s not fully known how many participants there are then a factor should be applied of say 3 times the normal sentence. This is when you know it’s more than one but hard to say whether or not say there was someone in the getaway car or one of the robbers was the driver also.
What does this do? Well if I was the one going away I would have to seriously ask myself is it worth the rest of my life? Will I ever see the proceeds of the crime? Do I deserve to serve the time for all the others and they enjoy the proceeds? I gotta think looking down the barrel of 40 years knowing I could shorten it and quickly would give way to my lips becoming looser.
It also gives the police a way to encourage criminals to give up their co-horts quicker. Especially knowing that their co-horts can get caught and I am still stuck with the big sentence. I believe it just gives the police weapons to use during interogation.
More people are chipping in and doing the possible, because the UK government want to keep the local officers from bearing arms. It is a condition of retaining power over the colony. That is why the Commissioner of Police comes with his psychology that if you armed the officers, the criminals will do likewise. But presently the criminals are armed, making a mockery of the Service, and those therein are scared to respond to reports because of not being properly equipped.
This is just pathetic! Bad for our Tourism and Financial industires!
Not as bad as gun happy police! Just look at our neighbour. High murder/killing rate – by criminals and police. I’m one Caymanian who will never support guns for police (too many non-Caymanian police). We stand little chance with the criminals, who are not all Caymanians but less chance with more gun happy people. There would be too much blood shed.
Man…These guys are stupid. 7 to 10 years (maybe) if you get caught with a firearm. All so you could steal a few bucks and a few cell phones. The cops have a partial license plate and vehicle description. In the USA these guys would be done for in short order. Here, you rob a bank and get away in a black Jeep Compass of which their could be no more than maybe ..what 20 on the island and that’s still not enough. Did the bank Robbers "Steal" the car from Auntie for the afternoon when she was sleeping so no one really knows who’s Jeep it was? This recent robbery should be a test. Each one of these guys is begging to get caught by doing what they did. Let’s see what happens.
"The suspects were seen to leave the location in a white Ford Explorer the first numbers being taken as N132."
Just how difficult is it to do a database look up and pay a visit to the owner?
Oh yeah, this is the Cayman plod we’re talking about. Sorry for asking; carry on.
If you read the report properly instead of rushing to criticize you would notice that they not only got the car, but also someone with it, within minutes. Therefore not really much point to this post???
Was this a foreign license plate? Possibly a C.I. vanity??? Dept. of Licensing has never issued a license plate starting with a letter, other than dealer plates, vanities, or the original Jamaica Die plates starting with CI prefix….. Just wondering….
I think it was South Carolina.
I think it is best advised for everyone to keep a cool head and carry bannanas onyour person to hopefully tame these Gorrillias if you come into contact with one of them as that is the only protection or hope you have.
These jungle creatures are not scared to cause harm to anyone. It is clear that with all of the armed robberies within a stones throw of most Police Stations and with the Police having armed, heavly on most occassions, on Patrol that they are not afraid of a confrontation with the RCIP. The Police Units are armed to the like of a US city Swat team and it is not curbing the crime. CRIME IS RISING. FACT NOT FICTION.
No matter how much Dr.White or David Baines can tell us to light our properties up in order to not become a victim, it will not change the fact that their advise it not worth the money we are paying them. The fact that these criminals are so brazen shows that there is no fear of the Police let alone some light. When you take into account these meetings with such ideas, does anyone know how much it costs us to have them present these ideas in terms of thier salaries? THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to be told things that are beyond a person with a bordering IQs comprehension. They are robbing CROWDED places in broad daylight within minutes of POLICE STATIONS.
We are now living in a place where criminals are engraded into the community with a large amount working together to cause harm to the community. There is no rewind button on this and things will never go back to the way of 15 years ago. The Stallion is out of the barn and has mounted everything it can, no need to close the barn door now.
disagree! That’s called all or nothing thinking. The barn door can always be shut.
where was the suspect from? If he was from WB it would probably have been all over by now….
So this genius used his own car??
Now you know that Caymanians are not stealing passports so makes you wonder what nationality did this one……….
O focurse Caymanians may need a foreign passport. How else are they going to get a job in Cayman?
Passports might have been tucked into wallets, and victims are asked to report all items that were taken, so maybe this article just incorporates those items, not necessarily that the criminals wished for any reason to take them intentionally.
I wonder too. And I wonder why you would say that Caymanians don’t steal passports.
Passports are often stolen in a certain neighbouring country in order to sell to others who wish to gain access to the U.S. which will be difficult with their national passports, or alternatively where the stolen passports already contain a U.S. Visa.
Well I guess this is the end of the road now. People getting robbed outside shops. What to say. Cell phones, passports, cash. Soon it will be your wedding ring, earrings, Nike shoes and designer jeans. Its now every man for himself in these times. Personally the general public is not safe anywhere. Becareful when you go to the supermarkets and doing christmas shopping. Dont take handbags, wallets or purses. Dont park in dark areas. Always take along kids, to the supermarket and shops with you, they make a lot of noise outside and they see everything. Dont go to bars and night clubs alone. Dont leave alone. If someone is kind a tipsy, keep an eye on them until they get into their car. We have to be our brothers keeper in these times.
all very good points exept the last one, perhaps you should drive them home or wait for a taxi to take them home
I fear taking my kids anywhere now, let alone to carry them along as a deterant for an armed robber, I’d rather get held up alone and take what comes than to subject a child to that. I agree with everything else!
I am already walking around empty handed. But this is not the life I want to live. I wonder why nobody, I men,nobody-media, chamber of commerce, whoever, demands a press coference with the police and governmnet. My child is coming for a visit, and I am thinking if I am out of my mind bringing him here.
It was a sad day when you lost that police job. GET OVER IT!!
The police keep asking for more cars and more officers. They claim that would help reduce crime. Does anyone know that the RCIP has one of the largest police force in the world per capita, also they have almost 1 car per officer when you factor in the shift system. What they need to start doing is looking at the skills of these officers. Are they the best for the job? How motivated are they? Do the public trust them?
Before the RCIP gets more, they need to learn to do more with less. There are a high number of unsolved, serious crimes on this island of 27 miles long. I’ve seen medium sized cities of 2-3 million people where the crime solve rate is higher.
No way some of thesecriminals should be getting a clean getaway robbing banks in the middle of the day with witnesses all around. On such a small place, I guarantee some family or friends have an idea of who commits these crimes and not giving them up. This is a big problem and these people should be charged with police obstruction if the law could prove these same people are affording protection to th criminal element.
It reads like there were a minimum of 5 victims/witnesses to question, yet the Police for all of their best efforts, could not even reach a consensus on the precise number of gunmen?
Ohh shut it already !!.. what were the police supposed to do: be waiting at the Shoppe for the bandits to arrive? Or anticipate the next location to be robbed? Pleeaaseee !!!
Give the RCIP some credit.. they have recovered the car and one suspect is in custody.
Keep up the good work RCIPS !!
100% agreed
However, I feel they can do better if the Commissioner of Police focus more on training and equipping them with firearms, and proper investigative tools to get the job done – Instead of asking for more officers or bringing down his favored bunch fromt the UK that have not accomplished anything for these islands.
Yes, good work indeed… hit and runs that aren’t reported, numerous unsolved robberies, delays in showing up to the crime scenes… it goes on.
Whilst there are a few good men out there, rotten apples will spoil the bunch.
And wear your seat belts for once!
You should look at who is in charge of them not the officers themselves.