St Mary ‘safe robbery’ baffles police
OCHO RIOS, St Ann – The St Mary police were yesterday still trying to determine how robbers last Thursday night made off with a safe, weighing around 1,800 pounds, from the office of Pihl, the contractors building segment three of the North Coast Highway from Ocho Rios to Port Antonio.
Up to yesterday investigators probing the robbery that took place a week ago were still trying to find a lead into the case.
“Maybe it was done by persons close to the company, persons with inside knowledge,” theorised Sgt Alford Stoddart, the Constabulary Communication Network’s (CCN) spokesman for St Mary.
The safe, containing US$14,000, J$3 million cash and J$4.7 million in cheques, along with 20 passports of expatriates working on the project, and other documents, was stolen between 6:00 pm on Thursday, October 12 and 5:50 am on Friday, October 13 from offices located at Llandrumney in St Mary, the police reported.
It was recovered on Saturday in Iterboreal, near Port Maria, but without the cash. The robbers burnt the passports, cheques and other documents, the CCN reported. The thieves used a welding torch to cut a hole in the safe big enough for a hand to go through, then emptied the safe.
The cheques and part of the local currency represented salaries for employees who should have been paid the following day.
Security guards were assigned to the premises, but it was unclear if they were at the location on the night of the robbery. They were, however, questioned by the St Mary police and later released.
“We have not identified any specific suspects in the case,” Stoddart said. But questions suround how the robbers were able to remove such a heavy safe without being detected.
The CCN said Pihl had reported, after the robbery, that it took nine persons to place the safe inside the office and suggested that the same amount of persons would have been needed to remove it.
It was further suggested that a truck would have been needed to transport the safe.