Masked robbers hit local store
(CNS): In the ninth armed robbery of the year robbers wearing Halloween masks held-up a local grocery store in Prospect on Thursday evening. Police say that the two men were armed with what appeared to be a handgun when they entered the McRuss grocery store on Marina Drive at around 8.50pm. The men threatened the cashier, who was in the store with her 8-year-old son, as well as customers and demanded cash. The suspects grabbed a sum of money, ran out of the store and are believed to have then entered a black Toyota Prado before driving off from the scene. No shots were fired and no one was injured in the incident, a police spokesperson said. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)
George Town detectives said the suspects are described as wearing dark clothing and Halloween type masks. One of the robbers was around 5’3" in height and the other was around 5’11". They both were of medium build and spoke with Caymanian accents.
Anyone who was in the area at the relevant time and witnessed the crime, or the suspects fleeing the scene in the black Prado, is asked to contact George Town police station on 949-4222 or the confidential Crime Stoppers number 800-8477 (TIPS).
Category: Headline News
BLack Tint is legal you can buy it @ Parkers, Napa, Or Larrys not on a Jamaican Canoe.
Maybe you should ask if it is in the best interest of the public and does it hamper police from doing their jobs?
Sometimes laws are written and it appears as if it comes from a child.
Things have gone downhill since the 2003 status grants and following Ivan. There were supposedly 1500 plus illegals here after Ivan. I have no idea whether they were ever rounded up and sent home but I doubt it. If proper background checks had been done on the status grant applicants some of this would not be happening. I agree more police should be armed and the officers we have all met who cannot read, write or put a sentence together fired and those not from here sent home. Sorry but its not a charity. They make the whole Police force look like a joke and obviously the criminals are not the slightest bit afraid of them. I would not go to an armed robbery without a gun either. I think its time for the people of these islands to get together and demand better. We are paying for the Police Service and deserve to have first class officers. Not illiterate people who cannot uphold the law because they cannot even read it. WE also have the right to defend ourselves. I work too hard to have some punk come and shove a gun in my face and take what little bit of cash I have left over after paying the ridiculous amount of bills I have to pay each month. Start looking out for each other, form neighbourhood groups, look out for the elderly and report ANYTHING SUSPICIOUS. if the Police do not respond, complain to the Commissioner’s office, your MLA the Governor. We cannot sit and take this complacent attitude by those in power any more
i think that our police force should be armed!
they would catch the crimminals this way!
the streets would be cleaned up this way!
first of all as the way it is set up now only a armed responsed unit can respond to an incident which guns are used…
so therefore a unit right around the corner could intervene!
we all know that there is only a few armed units on per shift and no telling where they are patrolling at the time so how can someone in town catch a robber in prospect!
another thing after the cops catch them 10 years for the gun 15 to 20 for the aggravated robbery and 1 year per bullet!
there we go they will all be too old to make trouble when they get out! so thats about 50 years for robbery hows that for detterant?
It could have been worse.
Check out –
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-406394/Police-car-dummies-let-500-000-jewel-thieves-escape.html
Egypt, and others are doing it……
Lets hold mass protests, and take back what has been lost…
It should be legal by now to own a gun and to have one in your home or business then and only then will crime go down!!
Always been and still is today. Don’t let the Commissioner of Police mislead you into believing otherwise.
Just beware hidden agendas.
Your current CoP came here when the now deposed Labour government was pushing, with the support of a number of senior police officers, for total abolition of private firearms ownership in the UK.
However, ACPO (The Association of Chief Police, an organisation Mr Baines represented in his last post) is on record as not only opposing the 1997 handgunban but refusing to bow to recent political attempts to interfere further with current UK firearms licensing legislation.
Which side of the fence the CoP is taking remains to be seen but his pre-Christmas outburst probably gave a pretty good hint.
Can you post a link to the information to which you are referring?
As far as I know, there are laws that allow people to own weapons in Cayman, you just have to go through the process of getting licensed. A determined person with a clean record can get a license to own a gun. The man that took out the burgler in his home used a licensed weapon to protect his family and property. Hence why there were no charges filed against him.
Keep a gun for that purpose and when you use it you are quite rightly looking at a long long time in jail. Guns beget guns.
In the Cayman Islands, Section 18(1)(a) of the Firearm Law (2008 Revision) reads: “No person shall discharge any firearm on or within forty yards of any public road or in any public place except in the lawful protection of his person or property or of the person or property of some other person.”
What masks were they wearing? Maybe someone might know who it was by the masks. There are so many facebook pics, someone might recognize the masks from this past halloween as well.
….and another thing, if the police are not even going to be bothered to investigate the suspicious vehicle reported by the commentator who lives down the street, which feasibly could have deterred these perpetrators what good is it asking people to call crimestoppers now? It is called crime STOPPERS for reason, police are supposed to respond to tips from concerned citizens in order to STOP crime, not only ask for tips after the fact which is all I ever see reported, so re-name it crimeTIPPERS because that seems to be what it really is…..
The Police can’t even find a missing person in 76 sqaure miles how are they going to stop or prevent crime.
That is what you get for hiring gas pump attendants, pizza makers and dish washers into the force.
Any where else in the world you go to apply for a law enforcement job you need to have high standards and go through at least 6 months for training.
Government needs to start recuriting experinced officers since they are saying that Caymanians are not capable and officers are needed urgently. Atleast with hiring an experinced officer the 6 weeks training they give here would be only to get them familiar with procedures in the Cayman Islands Police Service.
Another factor what do youn expect the people to do if they are being ignored by the Government, when they are crying for jobs. (I am not giving them the rights to steal/rob)
Like I keep saying, if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result each time we are going to go insane before we even begin to tackle this country’s crime problem. Can anyone point to any new changes in the RCIP over thepast few years that were implemented to address the growing crime problem? Stripping tint from windows? Thats about it. Come on Government and RCIP, arm the police or at least the senior officers, improve officers pay and officers morale by sorting out your internal admin problems, get the Caymanians into senior positions in the RCIP where they can make real decisions that will make a difference here. It is the Caymanian officers that are your best assets in addressing local crime.
“Stripping tint from windows.” That is not even enforced. There are lots of laws on the books, enforce them.
I am about sick of hearing people blame the economy for all this crime. Thieves are thieves whether they are rich are poor. And not having Job is no excuse to go out and stick someone up. People with this mentality do not deserve a job or freedom for that matter. Most of these losers just feel it’s easier to steal someone else’s hard earn cash than to go out and work for it themselves while others are just downright bad people or Crack heads, for instance the losers who stole the school kids lunch money. What can you really do with 12 Dollars which won’t even really put food on the table, maybe just one meal if you’re thrifty.
It should be obvious that the RCIPS are not going to do anything about this, they keep asking the public for help but the comments below show they still do nothing when calls are made regarding suspicious activity. Maybe it’s time we take them up on their request for help from the public and start protecting ourselves as it seems no one else will. Throughout history in many different cultures when criminals took over it was the people that took the streets back not the law. Watch your back people, lock your doors, stay conscious of your surroundings. If you hear someone jimmying your lock and you are not armed XXXXX. If you own a store pay someone to be a lookout who could just lock the door when someone looking suspicious walked up and consider applying for a gun permit, they are allowed in Cayman. If you are not armed defend your own property by whatever means necessary. Slingshot, Hot Grits, Baseball Bat whatever it takes. When the people start fighting back this will come to and end. These guys are cowards and will only target people who will not or cannot fight back, for those who cannot we all need to help protect them. So if there’s elderly neighbors in your area keep and eye out for them. If you see someone hurting them it may be up to you to help protect them, just call the RCIPS to come and investigate, why there’s and bruised and beaten mugger lying in the street.
To those who come down hard against arming all the police, know that in these serious times, properly equipping these officers would provide a greater sense of security not only for them but for citizens. After their shifts, police officers still have to go to their families like the rest of us. Call me crazy but I would rather take my chance with armed officers full time than with armed criminals whose intentions are no good. Have you seen how some of our fellow civilians behave towards police and civilians alike. Time to take back our country.
They can’t catch anyone, with weapons or without.
Because in most cases, in order to prevent or stop a robbery, one has to be at the scene during the robbery, or very near by and know. Store owners/representatives and security officers are normally present during a robbery, but police officers are not, so it makes sense why police officers are not catching these lawbreakers. Some are asking the police to do the almost impossible, catch lawbreakers without being present. I support police officers being armed, and some should carry concealed, but since security officers and store owners/representatives are present during a robbery, they are the persons who are in a better position to prevent or stop robbers than the police.
I’m tired of even commenting on these episodes. To risk min. 10 yrs in jail for firearms offences, endanger life for a reward of a few dollars, I.e. $12 the other day robbed from school kids, what kind of society are we living in? This crime spree is not only the RCIPS problem but is a result of the poor economy as well as poor immigration policies. We didn’t have these problems back in the day! We need our Government to ambitiously tackle immigration and policing and to get on with the task of putting incentives in place for people to build such as the duty reduction and pension access to spur the economy so people can earn a living and are not driven to desperation.
Get over yourself and stop posting your nonsense, we’d all be better off.
Sure, RCIP, the economy and immigration polices are the only causes. You seem to have missed parenting, although that’s why it’s a big issue, because people like you do not realize that it starts at home. And yes, just by chance, it might be the home of a Caymanian too.
I really don’t think these are people who want a 9 to 5 job so please don’t give these losers any excuses.
Having said that I do think immigration can do better at ensuring that the rules in place are complied with.
Initial and renewal work permit advertisements shouldn’t have obscure, irrelevant or trivial experiences or abilities or certifications.
Many employers don’t realize that married to caymanian, permanent residents, and legally resident on island need to be given preference. I mean look at the ads in the paper.
Many companies merely ignore certain responses out of convenience. Implement a formal personal attestation by company management regarding completeness of responses. Any intential deception will considered fraud.
These practices are especially prevelant in the financial service industry. The government has intiated regulations and policy to protect this industry however many of these companies seem to believe they are above all rules.
Also, I believe the status give aways need to be looked at. While many of you lucky ones will say “something had to be done for these long term residents” you can’t possibly think a ‘system’ where people who had been here less than 2 years or had not be living island for many years, or had access to the lists and put their name on it, was the best method to address the issue.
Here we go again, the expat boogyman hystrionics again, and as for a “poor immigration policy” Cayman doesn’t have an immigration policy, Cayman has a work permit policy. Things will never get better until the “good citizens” whether Caymanian or Expat do their civic duty. As for spurring the economy, a thief is a thief, a goon is a goon, a hoodlum is a hoodlum regardless whether rich or poor. Don’t blame the economy, blame the morons who are doing these things and the people who hide and abet them.
And what dirrection these these thugs go. East or West.? Give enough info. and they soon will be caught. Wasters.
It’s easy pickings in the Caymans…And the word seems to be getting around to the rest of the low lifes. I don’t see any way these type of stickups can be stopped by the Law. In the US most inner city grocery stores especially the ones in not so great areas avoid this type of stuff by having someone stand guard in a back room with a rifle pionted out of a hole in the wall. Pick off a few robbers and the rest will think twice.
Look at how many home invasions there were untill someone faced the would be burgler and put his lights out.
Its time for harsh penalties for robberies. Convict and send to a Cuban prison immediately and put the pictures in the papers every time someone is shipped off for robbery offences. Rob a tourist, make it for life, one strike and you’re out.
Okay….I live down the street and for the past TWO days in a row, I called in a licenseplate on a black Honda that looked suspicious. HELLLOOOOOOO anyone in the police force going to follow up on this one!?! If my tips were followed they could have caught these thugs BEFORE the robbery with a hand gun in their car!
I am freaked out. My husband went up to the car as it was sitting across the street from our home, running, no front license plate, facing outward in a driveway of a vacant house…..he looked inside and saw a young man, lucky he did not get his head blown off!
Caymanian/Expat family. Every day I see cars and trucks on the road with number plates missing, and in spite of the recent crackdown on tinting, many drivers drivers are completely invisible behind black windows. As much as I support the Police in these difficult times, I cannot understand how this ‘giving the two fingers’ to the police and the law is allowed. When I see drivers getting away with these things, it makes me uncomfortable, wondering what other offences the Police might be turning a blind eye to.
If indeed the police did not turn up to investigate the suspicious vehicle that you called in, then I personally find that inexcusable, given that they are asking the public to help out more, and given that the car had the front number plate missing.
I would be very interested to hear the story from the Police’s point of view, very interested indeed. This needs to be followed up aggressively.
Clarify…I did not know if it was a Honda or a Toyota. I called in a black Japanese souped up car. I think it may have had gold rims. Next time I’ll take a photo.
I agree that your tips should have been followed up immediately however the car you are describing does not seem to be the car (SUV) indicated to be used in robbery.
I have heard some speak about arming Police officers with a higher degree of force they have now. However, I think that if you are going to arm Police officers, civilians should be allowed as well to arm themselves from what I would refer to as “possible corrupt officers.” In other words, if you’re going to arm the Police, it ought to include everybody else – across the board! Business owners could benefit from having the right to bear and use any forcible measure to protect their assets and employees from harm.
It’s comments like this one that totally reinforce my decision to leave this sinking ship. Scary.