Bandits open fire, rob city gas station

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:01 by GxMedia

A city gas station was Monday afternoon robbed of GUY$1 million by two men during the 10 minute ordeal, according to the owner of the decades-old business enterprise.

Steve Cheong, who operates a Rubis-branded outlet on Vlissengen Road and Eping Avenue, Bel Air Park, believed that the attack was an inside job.

“I suspect this but I can’t tell u definitely that it so,” he told Demerara Waves Online News (www.demwaves.com). He explained that the incident occurred around 4:30 PM shortly after electricity supply had been restored and the morning’s sales were being balanced.

He said the video surveillance recorder has to be restarted whenever power is restored. In this case, the recorder was not restarted before the robbery.

The two men entered the unlocked office and fired shots in the roof before escaping on a motorcycle with the cash- the first robbery for the year.

Cheong, who is the ex-president of the Guyana Petrol Dealers Association, seized the opportunity to call on the Guyana Police Force to deploy periodic patrols around gas stations.

“We are just left open to doing a good job and serving the public and making sure everyone gets gasoline and the little profit that we make is being taken away from us,” he said.

He lamented that gas stations and their owners are not being treated as an essential service.

Cheong’s call came one week after fellow gas station owner Cecil Gajadar and his employee, Vincent Da Silva, were ambushed on Water and Cowan Streets, Georgetown as they were heading to a city bank.

One man has been charged with murder in the course of committing a robbery of GUY$8 million belonging to Gajadar.