Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne is wait­ing for a re­port on the dis­ap­pear­ance and pos­si­ble theft of the re­cent­ly in­stalled Trinidad and To­ba­go Street sign in Queens, New York.

It is al­leged the sign was stolen some time ear­li­er this week.

Browne told the Guardian Me­dia that had he in­struct­ed the Con­sulate Gen­er­al of T&T in New York, An­dre Laveau, “to ver­i­fy this as­ser­tion, to meet with the May­or of New York AS­AP on the mat­ter and to re­quest a for­mal in­ves­ti­ga­tion.”

“I an­tic­i­pate a re­port in the near fu­ture,” Browne added.

Con­tact­ed on the is­sue yes­ter­day, Con­sul Gen­er­al of T&T Laveau, said he had on­ly con­firmed that the sign was miss­ing.

“I nev­er said it was stolen. I said it was miss­ing. I am try­ing to get in­for­ma­tion from the May­or’s of­fice. I have writ­ten to him. They are on it and they are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.”

News that the sign was al­leged­ly stolen caused out­rage with­in the Trinida­di­an com­mu­ni­ty liv­ing in New York City, some of whom ex­pressed dis­gust. This af­ter there was a claim that the feud­ing be­tween Trinida­di­ans and Guyanese may have led to the act.

Speak­ing with the Guardian Me­dia, Tri­ni-born US res­i­dent Sharon Teerath-Bachu, who lives in Queens, said she was fed-up with the rift, not­ing it raised its ug­ly head dur­ing the re­cent Caribbean Pre­mier League (CPL) T20 tour­na­ment.” CPL was sup­posed to unite the Caribbean peo­ple but they have tak­en this ri­val­ry too far, es­pe­cial­ly be­tween Trinidad and Guyana. Re­al­ly dis­gust­ing,” Teerath-Bachu said.

Teerath-Bachu was re­fer­ring to Sun­day’s CPL fi­nal, where the Guyana Ama­zon War­riors beat the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers by nine wick­ets to win their first-ever ti­tle.

Just over one month ago, a street in Queens, New York City, was named af­ter T&T.

The street was re­named dur­ing a gala af­fair on Au­gust 20, where 131st Street in Rich­mond Hill, Queens, was Trinidad and To­ba­go Street.

How­ev­er, the re­nam­ing cer­e­mo­ny went ahead de­spite a pe­ti­tion that was start­ed on Au­gust 16, 2023, by some­one called “Trinida­di­an Na­tive.”

The rea­son giv­ing for the pe­ti­tion were stat­ed as fol­lows on change.org: “On this up­com­ing West In­di­an Day Labour Day Pa­rade in Brook­lyn, NY, that’s been around since 1947, it’s a slap in the face to re­name 131st in Rich­mond Hill, Queens, NY to Trinidad & To­ba­go (TNT) St. Rich­mond Hill, Queens, NY is called Lit­tle Guyana which has no as­so­ci­a­tion to TNT.

“The ma­jor­i­ty of TNT im­mi­grants have set­tled in Brook­lyn, NY, which makes TNT im­mi­grants a big part of the year­ly West In­di­an Day Pa­rade. Church Ave (pop­u­lar street for Trinida­di­ans) in Brook­lyn, NY should be named Trinidad @ To­ba­go St. in­stead of 131 St, Rich­mond Hill, Queens, NY., that on­ly came alive in the 1990’s as Lit­tle Guyana due to the in­flux of Guyanese im­mi­grants, which is in no way con­nect­ed to Trinidad & To­ba­go. There’s not even a pa­rade in Queens, NY on Labour Day com­pared to Brook­lyn, NY. Please sign this pe­ti­tion to stop the re-nam­ing cer­e­mo­ny from 131st Rich­mond Hill, NY to Trinidad & To­ba­go Street. This is for every Trinida­di­an in New York,” the post added.