Thieves hit Valu Mart, Dollar Smart and Lotto Office
By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
~~Adz:Left~~ BASSETERRE, St. Kitts- EMPLOYEES at some of the businesses at the Horsfords Shopping Complex on Wellington Road arrived to work this morning (March 18th) to find their workplaces had been broken into.
The three businesses that were burglarized were the St. Kitts &Nevis Lotto Office, Dollar Smart and ValuMart.
A Lotto Office employee told SKNVibes.com that she was first alerted of a disturbance when Caribbean Security Systems contacted her around 2 o’clock this morning. She said the security company said that the police had been contacted, but that they (police) had not called back to report any information as of 8 a.m.
Another employee noted that it appeared as if the thieves had gained entry through the roof of the building.
“I pulled out my keys and was shocked to see the door smashed. It looked like the window was broken with that cement block,” he said pointing to the shattered block a few feet away, “and then I noticed the ceiling tiles were knocked down, like they had tried to come through the roof.”
The unspecified number of burglars apparently used a painter’s ladder that had been leaning against the building to climb onto the roof top after entry could not be gained through the windows which had burglar-bars on the inside. It was said that the ladder been on the premise for nearly three weeks prior to the break-in.
AN off-duty police officer who was on the scene commented that it appeared as if the crooks also tried to disarm the alarm systems from the roof by breaking the electrical box.
After failing to break into the Lotto Office vault, the thieves attempted to burglarize DollarSmart and ValuMart. Though exact reports of losses were unavailable at the time, unsubstantiated reports claimed that the robbers had entered through a back entrance and were able to make off with a small petty cash safe from ValuMart.
It was reported that the security company contacted ValuMart around 4 a.m. and expressed concern that the police had not yet responded to the scene.
ValuMart contacted the police at 8 a.m. but as of a quarter after 9the police had not arrived.
According to a manager at the Lotto Office, this was the second break-in attempt at their business place in the past six months.
