A West Coast Demerara (WCD) couple is charging that a large amount of spare parts seized from them by the police were missing from a container when it was finally handed over to them last week.

The container of parts had been seized from the Best family in connection with an alleged theft from Guyana Stores Limited (GSL). The man and woman had denied any involvement in a theft from GSL.

Attempts to contact the Police Public Relations Department on Saturday and yesterday on the matter proved futile. A visit to the Brickdam station saw the container still secured in the compound. However enquiries there did not elicit a response.

The vehicles spares, which had been purchased from GSL and for which receipts were produced, were taken away when police ranks accompanied by an official associated with GSL went to a building occupied by the 86-year-old father of the man and ransacked a storeroom in which they were being kept.

The goods were subsequently lodged for safe-keeping at the Brickdam Police Station in the city.

Speaking with Stabroek News on Saturday the couple stated that upon receipt of permission from the Director of Public Prosecutions to uplift their goods they proceeded to the Brickdam Police Station on Friday to recover same.

It was only after the container in which their goods had been stored was opened that an amazing discovery was made. Save for a few scattered items the container was empty.

The couple was astonished as the container had been in police safe-keeping since it arrived at the station at about 5 pm on January 10 after leaving their Best premises at about 11 am the day before.

Several questions, according to the couple, remain unanswered chief of which is where did the goods disappear to while in police custody and why keys for the container lodged with police were not in their possession.

The couple further queried the length of time it took for the container to be transported from the Best, WCD premises to the Brickdam station and why it was not instead lodged at the nearest police station which is Vreed-en-Hoop.

The couple stated they are in possession of information that spares taken from their WCD premises were transported to various locations.

Lamenting that one month has elapsed since the seizure of their goods they are wondering what they should do next to recover their property.

According to the couple, neighbours in the area told them that at the time of the seizure of the goods that more than one vehicle was used to transport them.

The former GSL employee in an article carried in this newspaper on January 13 last, had stated that at the time of the raid himself and his wife who were in the city were informed by telephone of it.

His father who was at the premises at the time was detained and later released on $10,000 bail.

Since the incident, repeated telephone calls to both the police and GSL officials by Stabroek News have borne little fruit.

Shortly after the raid an official of GSL contacted by Stabroek News had indicated that the CEO would have issued a statement but this never materialised.