Police say robberies not linked

While police yesterday would not call it a “trend”, officials are concerned about three robberies in or near private homes since Sunday and have called for increased vigilance.

In the wake of Tuesday evening’s Webster Estates home invasion, following two Sunday robberies – one in West Bay and one in George Town’s Palm Dale – in residential neighbourhoods, RCIPS Detective Superintendent Marlon Bodden said the crimes were sufficiently dissimilar that they were unlikely to be linked, but that no one was immune “just because you’re not in West Bay”.

“I wouldn’t choose ‘scary’ as the word to describe it, but I would say this kind of awareness is what we’re talking about. People need more awareness,” Mr Bodden told iNews Cayman yesterday. “We need to move from ‘scared’ to being ‘more aware’. You don’t need to own a store to have a robbery,” he said.

Tuesday night, police were called to Webster Estate’s Antoinette Avenue in the South Sound area, where, they said, a woman had been “confronted by two men, one of whom was in possession of what appeared to be a firearm.

“The men demanded cash before making off with a small quantity of the woman’s money and some jewellery. No shots were fired and no one was injured in the incident,” the report said.

At approximately 2am on Sunday, two masked assailants with a handgun and a knife stopped a man outside his Palm Dale home, taking a bag with an “undisclosed sum of cash”, police reported earlier this week.

A second report detailed a 7pm theft the same night when a man, brandishing “what appeared to be a firearm” broke into a Capt Curry Road home in West Bay, taking a wallet and two cellphones from a male victim.

“We are concerned, though, about the amount of robberies,” Mr Bodden said. “To be honest, I agree that there have been three or four incidents, but they were all over the place, throughout the island, and were different guys with different MOs [modus operandi] and the descriptions were different.

“A ‘trend’ is something we attribute to a pattern, and we don’t see one here. There is not enough to say it’s a trend,” the detective superintendent said.

The victims had been shaken up, but were safe.

“None were physically harmed,” Mr Bodden said, “but one would have to agree that they would be traumatised.”

Investigations are ongoing, but Mr Bodden was reluctant to say if the Palm Dale victim had been targeted, returning home late at night with a sum of cash, but he indicated the man had been a businessman.

“If you’re a businessman, well, we just appeal to individuals, to anyone with a business, to look after your own welfare. Be aware and try not to look like you are carrying anything. Act normally, and if you are concerned for your safety, don’t be afraid to call police.

Only the Capt Curry Road victim was able to describe his attackers — slim, nearly 6 feet tall and clothed entirely in black. “Anyone can be a victim.” Mr Bodden said.