Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 14, 2011 News
Police continue to detain two employees of the Guyana Post Office Corporation as they probe last Tuesday’s heist in which several mail bags, a firearm and a canister of money were stolen, after bandits hijacked a motor car belonging to the Corporation.
The two employees, a driver, Delvin Heywood, and a Postman, Wilfred Forde, were detained immediately after the daring operation, as investigators try to ascertain if there was any inside collaboration in the robbery.
This is the second time in a week that the GPOC has suffered significant losses to bandits, following last week’s heist at the Beterverwagting Post Office.
On Tuesday afternoon around 16:30 hours a vehicle transporting cash for the Guyana Post Office Corporation was attacked by armed bandits as it made its way back to the Head Office, a statement from the GOPC said.
According to the GPOC, three men armed with weapons confronted the driver and other staff members as they made their way along the Ogle Airstrip Road.
“The bandits forced the staff members to leave the vehicle and thereafter escaped with an undisclosed sum of cash and the vehicle. The vehicle involved in this incident has since been recovered,” the GPOC statement revealed.
Kaieteur news understands that earlier on Tuesday, the driver, the postman and a female Special Constable Debra Wilson left the GPOC Head Office in motorcar PLL 416 to collect and deliver mail.
They told investigators that among the locations they visited were Post Offices at Melanie Damishana, Beterverwagting and the Ogle Airport, where they collected six mail bags and a canister with money before commencing their return to the GPOC Head Office in the city.
On their way back, they stopped at a traffic light on the Ogle Access Road when three men approached their vehicle.
Although there were several occupied vehicles at the scene, one of the bandits brazenly placed a gun to Wilson’s head and demanded her weapon.
However she did not respond but one of the bandits opened the car door and pulled her out and took away her .38 revolver containing six matching rounds.
The bandits then ordered Heywood and Forde out of the car, after which they entered and drove away the vehicle.
The stranded employees later reported the matter to the police at Sparendaam, who went into operation immediately.
However the car was recovered around 07:15 hours abandoned in Atlantic Ville on the Lower East Coast Demerara.
In it the police found six ledger books, a leather gun holster and a black Motorola cellular phone.
Based on their initial investigations, police believe that Tuesday’s operation was aided and abetted from within the GPOC.
“How did the bandits know that the car would have used that route? This car was an unmarked vehicle, so how did they know that it contained GPOC money?” were some of the questions that investigators are asking.
This latest episode puts additional pressure on the administration of the GPOC to strengthen its internal system since it is believed that attacks on the Corporation are facilitated by some collaboration from inside.
Following last week’s torching of the safe at the Beterverwagting Post Office, Chairman of the entity Bishop Juan Edghill had pointed to collaboration from within.
“You will agree that to cut a post office safe has to do with planning and collaboration. It’s not a wooden box. We have some of the best safes inherited from the British. Persons have to spend several hours and there will be light and noise. All the Post Offices are imbedded in communities,” Edghill explained.
He said that the corporation has embarked on a massive security strengthening to arrest the spate of attacks it is experiencing.
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