By Svetlana Marshall
HAVING been stabbed and robbed, a 21-year-old North Ruimveldt female resident who asked to remain anonymous is alerting pedestrians to the presence of “a thief on wheels” who is roaming the North Cummingsburg ward, particularly in the vicinity of Camp Street.The young woman said she was proceeding north of ‘the Avenue’ bordered by Camp Street at approximately 21:30h on Sunday when she noticed a dark-skinned man on a red racing bike.

“He ride past me at first but when I was about to cross Church Street he came close to me, but I moved away,” she recalled. Scared for her life, she said, she decided to walk a bit faster but the man decided to follow her. He asked her a number of questions, including the location of Popeye’s and whether she was heading in the same direction. “I told him I was not heading in that direction but he kept asking more and more questions,” she recalled.

She said that just as she was about to pass Ultra Waters on Camp Street between Church and Quamina Streets, the man snatched her two cellular phones but she held on to his cycle.

“I know he would not have left without his bicycle, so I held on to it and I started to scream,” she said. The commotion attracted a couple who was passing in a car and they decided to intervene.

“When he saw the man coming, he said, ‘look back your phone!’ and he throw one of them at me and ran away. The people ran after him but they didn’t catch him,” she recollected.

During the ordeal, she said, the thief stabbed her with a sharp object to the left side of her abdomen and on her left hand, leaving her dripping blood on the public road. She said some good Samaritans placed her in a taxi and sent her to the Georgetown Public Hospital where she was treated and sent away.

She said she received eight stitches for the injuries sustained to her hand, but reported the incident at the police outpost at the hospital.

POLICE FOOT PATROLS
She is emphasizing the need for police to conduct foot patrols at nights in key areas such as North Cummingsburg. Camp Street, particularly between New Market and Quamina Streets – areas known for lurking thieves waiting to pounce on passersby.

Over the years, there have been calls for the police to heighten security in that area. However, Guyana Chronicle was told on Monday that there are usually motorcycle patrols along Camp Street between Regent and Lamaha streets.