SASCHA WILSON
Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
After being beaten and terrorised during a home invasion on Thursday night in Whiteland, a visiting 76-year-old Trinidad-born Canada resident says he is too scared to return to this country.
“Really and truly, if I don’t have to come I wouldn’t come again. It’s not easy. It’s like you are in a jail because even here you are afraid to walk, you are afraid to go anywhere, you have to have a group,” lamented Vishnu Ramnarine.
Last Friday, another Canadian visitor, Hilton Smith, 75, was found murdered at his brother’s home in Aripero, South Trinidad. He was bound and gagged and the house was ransacked.
Rubbing the area of his chest, which was still painful from the beating, Ramnarine said while he was aware of the high crime rate he had to come here on business. However, he admitted he was already contemplating making this trip here his last.
He recalled that he was asleep around 8 pm when he heard shuffling sounds and saw the intruders searching the closets.
At first, he thought it was the other person also staying at the house and called out his name, inadvertently alerting the men to his presence, and immediately, they accosted him. The intruders demanded money and jewellery.
“I told them I don’t have any gold. They say they going to buss my throat.”
Before they stole his Canadian, US and TT money, bank cards, cellphone and television set, he said they beat him.
Although it was too dark for him to ascertain if they were armed, Ramnarine said he was scared he would be killed.
“I was giving him the money. He couldn’t find it and I said let me show you and he throw like a jump kick, right in my chest. I say God that hurt but that did not mean anything to them.”
Ramnarine said he fell back onto the bed.
The suspects used a charger cable to tie his feet.
“They say don’t move otherwise I will kill you.”
He said they ransacked the house and “ripped everything”. When he stopped hearing them, he untied the cable, snuck through a side door, barefoot, and hid behind a water tank for about 30 minutes.
Due to the prevalence of home invasions, Ramnarine said before he came here he had already mapped out an escape plan in case he fell prey to criminals. He sought help from a nearby bar and they called the police.
Ramnarine, a retired aircraft assembler for Douglas Aircraft Company and Boeing Company, said he usually visited here once a year.
However, he noted, “If crime is like this who will want to come? I am lucky that I got away because they could have really hurt me more.”
Recalling that about 20 years ago he was robbed at knifepoint in Port-of-Spain, he said, “It’s getting worse and worse. It’s not getting any better and nobody seems to be able to handle it.”
However, he said he would still visit Tobago despite his concerns that crime has also increased in the sister-isle. His two sons live abroad.
Gasparillo police are investigating.
