Phone thief thanks cop for sparing his life
A man who held up a schoolboy and robbed him of his cellular phone thanked a policeman for not killing him when he was caught.
“Officer, thank you fi no kill me. A tru mi nah work and mi did need a money,” the offender, Leachem Rose, said when he was accosted by the cop who pointed a gun at him.
The court heard that the complainant was walking on Red Hills Road in St Andrew when Rose rode up on a bicycle and approached him as if he knew him.
Rose then got off the bicycle, pushed the boy against a wall, brandished a knife and took his phone, the court further heard.
The boy made an alarm but Rose escaped on his bicycle.
However, a policeman who was in his private vehicle and had received information about the robbery intercepted Rose on Molynes Road.
Rose was found with two phones in his possession, including the boy’s Alcatel One Touch device.
When he was cautioned Rose told the police: “Officer, mi would a like see the youth again to tell him sorry; ’cause mi nuh normally do dem tings yah.”
However, on June 6 when Rose appeared in court he challenged aspects of the allegations after pleading guilty to robbery with aggravation.
“I never have no knife. I am sorry, I never really did want do it,” he said.
Parish Judge Vaughn Smith then asked him how the robbery occurred.
“Mi see him, ride up on him. Mi tell him gimme the phone and him drop it and mi ride off,” Rose answered.
The judge then asked him why the boy said he had a knife, which he even described as a brown-handled kitchen knife
Rose, however, maintained that he did not have a knife while adding that he had only pretended as if he had one.
“A fake mi did a fake him,” he said.
Rose was subsequently remanded for sentencing on June 21.