Armed bandits in a brazen daylight robbery yesterday bound and relieved a Melanie Damishana businesswoman of about $1M cash and a quantity of jewellery before escaping.

During the 25-minute ordeal the bandits, who did not wear masks held the woman at gunpoint, tied her up, ransacked the home, cut the phone line, seized her cellular phone and asked for her husband whom they said they were looking for. All the while they were communicating with an accomplice on another cellular phone. Before making good their escape the trio grabbed $1M in cash and a quantity of jewellery.

  

The woman, Amanda Dublin, who operates a wholesale business at her Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara home, told Stabroek News that she was the only one there at about 11:30 am when a young man appeared at the grilled gate and requested a case of Icee soft drinks. She said that she noticed that he had $1500 in his hands and decided that rather than going to the gate twice, she would hand him the drinks and his change at the same time.

She recalled that she collected the change and the drinks and opened the gate and was in the process of handing it to him when an accomplice who was hiding behind the wall quickly slipped in. She said that man was armed with a handgun and immediately pointed it at her and demanded money and jewellery. "He ask for the black bag with the money, he ask for jewellery and ask for a gun", she stated. The woman said that she did not know about any "black bag with money" nor did she have a gun.

She recounted that she was then taken upstairs to a bedroom and made to lie face-down on the bed by the bandits who repeatedly warned her not to look at them and not to make any noise. The men bound her hands behind her back with a brassiere and tights while her feet were also tied together and a towel stuffed into her mouth. She said that for the entire ordeal the gun-toting bandit held her at gunpoint while the two accomplices ransacked the home. She said that she heard one of the bandits speaking on his phone saying "we get in! we get in!" The bandits demanded to know where her husband, who had left 15 minutes earlier, was, with one stating "I come for your husband, I want to kill your husband". She recalled that she had three rings on her finger, including her wedding ring but the bandits only took one leaving the wedding ring and the other.

Meantime, after ransacking the home the bandits had apparently found what they were looking for and left. Dublin recounted that she did not know this and only when a woman outside called her name did she wriggle out of her bonds and run over to her neighbour who called the police.

The woman expressed disappointment at the police response as she said a patrol did not respond until 1 pm. She said that the ranks left soon after, promising to be back. It was not until 3 pm that police returned however they did not take statements. Up to last evening the still traumatized woman said that she was still awaiting the return of the police.

Dublin said there were reports that the men had caught a minibus and escaped. She said that this was the first time in 20 years of operating her business that such a thing had happened to her.