A year and five months after a home invasion occurred at his Penal home, a 71-year-old man and his family again fell prey to bandits who poisoned their two dogs before robbing them at their Gopie Trace home on Wednesday.
Ajodha Pooran, his wife Kamla Bissoondath, his 45-year-old stepdaughter, his bedridden 87-year-old mother, and her caretaker were all robbed by four bandits, who he said spoke Spanish.
Pooran believes the men were the same bandits who robbed him in April last year. His home was also broken into in 2016. He said the men appeared to know the layout of the property.
He told police that the suspects crossed a river, cut the wire fencing with bolt cutters, poisoned his dogs, and used his own 40-foot ladder to enter an upstairs window. They then went downstairs to the bedroom shared by his mother and her caretaker. Around 2 am, Pooran said, the bandits forced the caretaker into the couple’s bedroom and told her to call out to them. Thinking something had happened to her mother-in-law, Bissoondath unlocked the door. She screamed when she was confronted by the bandits who were armed with cutlasses and knives. Her 45-year-old daughter, who is a special needs child, ran to her bedroom after hearing the screams. She, along with her mother, stepfather, and the caretaker, was tied up and forced to lie on the floor for about two hours while the bandits looted the home.
Pooran said one of the bandits, armed with a cutlass, stayed with them in the bedroom. “They tied my two wrists together, in the back, so tight that right now the two sides of my neck hurting. I had to go to the doctor.”
While they did not physically harm the family, Pooran said the men waved the cutlasses menacingly. He added that the bandits took $5,000 from his mother’s wallet and even stole the earrings she was wearing as she lay helpless on the bed.
He said they also stole several items, including US and Canadian currency, as well as $32,000, which he had been keeping in case his mother’s condition worsened, and he had to make funeral arrangements.
Bissoondath said she feared for her life. “I was just praying that they don’t harm us or kill us,” she recalled.
Pooran said after the home invasion in 2024, he reinforced security features around his house. He said he now feels helpless about how to defend himself, his family, and his property from bandits. Pooran said he is also considering installing an electric fence around his home and applying for a Firearm User’s License.
He even suggested that the Government create a database for Venezuelans with their fingerprints so they can be identified, as he strongly suspects the bandits may have been Venezuelans.
“Kamla promised us that she would send back all these Venes. If they don’t, they could create a database and get all the Venes to come get them fingerprinted and take pictures of them,” he suggested.
Pooran called for drastic action to be taken to curb home invasions, which he said had become a profession in T&T.
Police have not yet made any arrests.
