Pregnant housewife recalls attack
Bandit pelted her with hot dholl
Stabroek News
September 24, 2002
Last Thursday, police nabbed a bandit as he fled the home of a pregnant housewife, whom he had stabbed in the knee and set her mattress alight.
On Sunday Stabroek News spoke with Lelowatie Seenauth the 36-year-old mother of three about her ordeal. Seenauth said shortly after midday, she was sitting on the platform of her front stairs "cutting up calaloo fuh cook" when she saw the young man ride up and dismount his bicycle in front of her yard.
The woman, who is seven months pregnant, said she did not recognise him as someone she knew and as a result, called out telling him not to enter the yard. But he ignored her and placing the bicycle between two posts near the gate he entered the yard.
"I start to scream and call out fuh t'ief, t'ief," Seenauth said... and then I get up and go in the house and slam my door and put up [two wooden bars] behind it."
At this stage, the thief turned around and went out of the yard but instead of leaving, he approached two fishermen who had been fishing at a nearby trench and spoke with them. The victim said she did not hear what the thief told the men but she saw him draw a gun from his pocket, at which point, the fishermen promptly picked up their belongings and left.
Seenauth said she continued to scream but "[the bandit] pick up a iron bar from de yard and walk up de step and bruk de louvre [windows]." She said the thief then forced the iron bar between the two wooden bars and managed to open the door and enter the house.
She said she began to scream louder at that point and the bandit said, "Lady stop hollah and gimme de money and jewels."
Despite her insistence that she had neither money nor jewellery, the bandit went on to ransack the entire house, Seenauth related. She said while this was taking place, she tried to escape by running down the stairs but the thief pursued her and as she neared the end of the stairs, she fell and began to feel faint.
"Den he kick me in meh head two time and when me try fuh get up, he pull a knife from he pocket and plunge it in meh knee," the still shaken woman asserted.
The bandit continued demanding cash and jewellery, who told him to take the television, the music set and whatever else he could find, as she was in pain and could hardly move. However, the thief remained unmoved by Seenauth's pleas and the victim was forced to return upstairs.
When they went into the house, the thief took a kerosene lamp and emptied the oil onto a mattress before setting the said mattress alight but Seenauth managed to smother the flames with a pillow. Seemingly in a fit of anger, the bandit then went into the kitchen and placed a spoon into some rice and dholl being cooked on the stove and "...start pelting meh with it, lucky t'ing meh ain't get burn bad. I had to use de mosquito net to protec' mehself."
According to Seenauth, the bandit searched the place again and this time he picked up a pair of gold earrings belonging to her daughter, along with a single artificial gold earring and an artificial finger ring. He also picked up a photograph of Seenauth's husband, Nadan Jodhan, threatening to return and "finish we off" should they inform the police.
However, as the bandit rode off in the direction of the seawall, a police vehicle drove up and ranks chased and caught him before he could escape. The police vehicle transported Seenauth to the Georgetown Public Hospital where she received stitches for the wound in her knee.
She told Stabroek News that although she was in some amount of pain from the injury, she was less traumatised and recuperating well after her ordeal. She appealed to Minister of Home Affairs, Ronald Gajraj, to intensify efforts to eliminate the crime situation.
A police press release had said they arrested a felon, of Friendship, East Coast Demerara, fleeing from the scene of an attempted robbery and arson on a bicycle at about 12:15 pm and found in his possession a toy gun and `Rambo' knife.