Trini ‘carjacker’, accomplice make off with Executive’s new vehicle
July 24, 2015 | By KNews | Filed Under News, Source
When the top man of Trinidad-based Call Center – QUSET – decided to offer a friendly-looking foreigner a lift home late last Friday night, the last thing he expected was to be held at gunpoint and tossed out of his brand new vehicle.
QUSET’s Chief Executive Officer, Rawle Aaron, 52, is counting his losses and hoping for justice after coming face-to-face with two gun-toting bandits who threw him out of his brand new Toyota Fielder motorcar at D’Urban Backlands and sped away around 23:45 hours.
Aaron said that earlier that night he dropped a few of his friends off at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, East Bank Demerara for a Caribbean Premier League match. Promising to return to take them home, Aaron said he ventured to the seawalls to relax until the game was over.
Seated quietly in his vehicle listening to the match on the radio, the CEO recalled hearing a tapping on his window. Suspecting nothing, the 52-year-old rolled down the window and started talking to the man who had “a Trinidadian accent.”
The stranger, Aaron said, told him that he was trying to get to Greenheart Street, and he (Aaron) pointed out that he was a far way from there since that street is in South Ruimveldt.
As he was conversing with the stranger, a text message came through to him from his daughter who asked him to purchase some ice-cream and take it to her. Aaron, a South Ruimveldt resident himself, then decided to offer the stranger a lift, because he then had reason to head in that direction.
Aaron said as they neared Greenheart Street, the man told him told him to make the first left, turn off of the said street, and keep driving until he told him to stop.
“There were people on the street then so nothing happened. I dropped him off and left to get the ice-cream for my daughter,” the man related.
Later, he returned to the Stadium to pick up his friends.
“Around eleven o’clock (23:00 hours) my friends and I left the Stadium heading for Palm Court, but when we arrived, I realised I was tired, so I just wanted to go home and rest. I dropped them off at Palm Court and continued north along Main Street,” the man explained.
But at Main and Middle Streets, “I saw someone trying to flag me and I stopped when I realised it was the same person I dropped off in Greenheart Street, so I asked him if he didn’t find his friends, he replied ‘yes’ and that they were liming on the Seawalls, so I decided I could give him a quick drop there and then head home.”
“Whilst traveling on the seawalls we saw there was no one out there and then he told me that his friends will be in Durban Backlands, so I decided to give him a drop there as it was also on my way home,” the father of three related.
At the corner of Mandela Avenue and D’Urban Street, the stranger told him that he was heading near the Enterprise Primary School.
“When we arrived in front of the school, he told me to drive up a bit more… that he was trying to locate the exact house. Whilst I was rolling up slowly another individual wearing a hoodie came up to my vehicle from behind and opened my driver’s side front door and pointed a gun at me and said “Come out the car or I will kill you!”.”
Frightened by the gun pointed in his direction, Aaron recalled coming out of the vehicle and complying with instructions to empty his pockets and throw his cash and cellular phone into the vehicle.
He related that the gun-toting carjacker “ told me to walk away from the vehicle and that if I looked back he will shoot me. So I started walking in a southern direction away from the vehicle.”
“I only heard my vehicle driving away,” he said, adding that since the “coast was clear” he turned around and walked back out to Mandela Avenue and sought the help of a taxi driver who took him to the East La Penitence Police Station, where he lodged a report of the incident.
Early the next morning, a party of police ranks picked him up and took him to the station, claiming that they had a suspect in custody. There he saw the man he offered a lift twice sitting quietly.
“It was definitely this man. I picked him up twice and was conversing with him,” the man said. He said later that morning the police held a confrontation along with another man whose vehicle was reportedly stolen in a similar fashion.
“Later that day, I returned and had the confrontation with the individual, and I identified him for the police, as he was still wearing the same clothes and his facial features, everything. The other stolen vehicle owner also identified him as the culprit, but he kept denying.”
Aaron left, but on Sunday he received a call from the police who said that this matter had attracted the attention of the Commissioner of Police as it is foreign national involved.
Yesterday, a remigrant complained that his vehicle was hijacked by the said Trinidad national. He called for justice, since the man who had been identified by him and Aaron had been released on bail.
The Guyana Police Force, in responding to that article, confirmed that the investigations have been completed and the police are in the process of seeking legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions.
“The suspect in the matter, who is a Trinidadian Engineer employed with a reputable company in Guyana, and who was arrested based on description given, was placed on bail during the investigations. He had provided an alibi that was supported by two witnesses,” the Police said.
Both victims are adamant, however, that the suspect released on bail is the perpetrator.