Stabroek News
June 5, 2001

A part-time taxi driver on Sunday evening had a harrowing experience when two men hijacked his car and dumped him in a city cemetery before using the vehicle to commit a robbery on the East Coast of Demerara.

Thomas Carter called `Junior' was robbed at gunpoint of his vehicle - a Toyota Corolla AE81, cash totalling $24,000, his wedding ring and cell phone while he was plying his trade on Sunday evening.

Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday, Carter who is employed at Globe Trust and Investment Company Limited, related how close he came to death at the hands of bandits whom he had picked up earlier.

According to the city resident, he was returning to his South Georgetown home when he stopped and picked up two men he saw waiting on South Road between Oronoque and New Garden streets.

The men, who requested to be taken to a house in Meadowbrook Gardens, stopped briefly at the corner leading to the area to purchase a loaf of bread after which they continued onto the residence. One was said to have asked Carter if he had a knife.

It was when they finally arrived at the house and had paid for the drop that the trouble began.

According to Carter, it was after the bandit seated in the back seat had paid him for the drop, that he felt the barrel of a gun being pressed to the back of his neck.

He was immediately ordered over to the back seat after which the man seated in the front seat took control of his vehicle and drove to the western half of Le Repentir cemetery.

Prior to this, the man at the rear who had the weapon, requested that he remove the laces from his boots which were then used to tie his hands behind his back.

The robbers then used his cell phone to call reinforcements who met them at the cemetery and aided in tying him up further with the seat belt from his car and bounding his mouth with his jersey.

One of the men, stated Carter, debated the possibility of killing him but another who was not in agreement decided that he should be put to lie between two tombs.

After lying motionless for several minutes to ensure that the men had departed, Carter said he used the power of prayer to help him move.

With his hands and feet bound behind him he hopped on his knees, evading several perils before finding a stone which he used to remove the bonds from his feet. He then struggled to Vlissengen Road to seek assistance.

While there, a neighbour who is also a taxi driver noticed his position and came to his assistance taking him to the nearby police outpost and to the hospital to obtain a medical.

It was not until yesterday morning that he was contacted by police who informed him that his car which had been used in a robbery, had been found on the railway line road in the vicinity of Plaisance.

Upon checking his vehicle later at the Sparendaan police station, he discovered that it had been stripped of several items including his music equipment and its wheel jack. (Oscar P. Clarke)