Bandits continue supermarket spree of terror

TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands-MAKING a mad dash to the market has taken on a new meaning in the British Virgin Islands, as the Territory recorded its third supermarket robbery in ten days on Sunday night (Nov. 9) around 9:15.

In the most daring and violent of the three robberies, two men charged into the Rite Way Food Market in Pasea Estate just after nine, pistol whipped an unarmed guard and demanded cash from the registers.

Reports from customers who witnessed the robbery indicate that the men covered their faces with bandanas prior to entering the store and forced them to lie face down on the floor during the heist.

The same customers further stated that the attending cashiers ran to the backroom of the supermarket in an attempt to hide from the robbers, leaving their locked registers for pillaging.  The security guard who was attacked related his horrific ordeal to BVI Platinum News.

“All I see is these two men come up from nowhere and lash me in my head and drag me into the store and told me to lie there and not to say anything. That is what I did and I am not sure what happened after then,” the allegedly trembling man told the media house.

Police officials did not state how much money was taken, if any, or if this latest incident is believed to be related to the prior two similar robberies. Police Commissioner Reynell Frazer offered scant advice to the business owners of the Territory, asking them “to be on guard during this time of year, as robberies tend to escalate”.

Sunday night’s robbery comes on the heels of a November 6 robbery at Bobby’s Supermarket in Cane Garden Bay and a November 1 robbery at the Rite Way Food Market in Tortola, both of which were similarly perpetrated by two masked men.
It is believed that the total amount of cash taken in the prior two robberies totaled over $1300.