Appleton shaken after armed robbery
Published:Thursday | July 2, 2020 | 12:26 AMHopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The St Elizabeth police have confirmed that a man has been taken into custody in connection with Wednesday’s armed robbery at Appleton Estate in Siloah.
According to reports, shortly after 8 a.m., three masked men entered the estate’s administrative office and held the occupants at gunpoint. They then proceeded to rob the office and the employees of an undetermined sum of money and other valuables.
Following the robbery, J. Wray & Nephew Limited said the robbery was the first such incident in the company’s history, expressing surprise given Appleton’s extensive outreach and community-partnership initiatives.
“We can confirm that no one was physically hurt during the incident, but the team is emotionally shaken,” it said in a press statement, adding that the police had responded quickly and were following leads.
Superintendent Nordia Simms, commanding officer for St Elizabeth, told The Gleaner that the police’s swift response to the robbery had resulted in the detention. Up to late Wednesday afternoon, the man was being questioned.
Over the past year, St Elizabeth has emerged as a hotspot for armed robberies, with crooks carrying out multimillion-dollar hits across major townships such as Black River, Santa Cruz, and Junction.
“These robbers are well organised. They have discovered that the police have beefed up security presence in areas like Santa Cruz, so they have now taken their illegal activities to the outskirts of the parish,” a police officer told The Gleaner.