Independence misery
MoBay craft vendors hit by robbers
Published:Saturday | August 12, 2023 | 12:06 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Vendors at the Harbour Street Craft Market in Montego Bay, St James, are counting their losses after nine shops were plundered over the Independence holiday.
The losses are estimated at several thousand dollars.
One vendor, who asked that his name not be published, told The Gleaner that the thieves removed T-shirts and leather bags from the shop he operates while a neighbouring shop was robbed of an undetermined sum of money.
“We were in our bed when we got a call from another vendor, [saying], ‘Unoo nuh hear seh unoo shop break inna?’” he recalled. “When we came down here, it was madness, and I cannot believe so many shops get broken into and the security guard is there, and yet nobody can give an account of what happened.
“Even after the police were gone, my wife realised she was missing T-shirts and some leather bags out of the shop, and another lady was missing money that she had put down for people. It was very much touching because we never expected this since the security guard is in here,” the vendor added.
The vendors said that while the police visited the location and inspected the targeted shops, they are yet to be updated on the status of the investigation.
“We are just going to have to wait on the police. We just have to wait for them to do what they have to do and get back to us,” said one craft trader.
When The Gleaner contacted Carol McLennon, president of the Harbour Street Craft Market Association, she flatly refused to comment.
McLennon and some of the craft traders have not been seeing eye-to-eye in recent times as many have been questioning her leadership, charging that she has not been acting in their best interest.
Recently, the craft traders invited The Gleaner to a meeting they had with the leadership of the craft market association. Among the concerns raised were security issues, infrastructural development, and improved representation.
At another meeting in July, the vendors had accused the leadership of favouritism and lamented its failure to address their many concerns. The also called on Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett to intervene as it gets most of its patronage from visitors.
Bartlett had previously asserted that craft markets do not fall under his portfolio, but with the Ministry of Investment, Industry and Commerce and the Jamaica Business Development Corporation.