Gunmen dressed as private security rob GTT outlet at Giftland Mall of $13.4M cash, $6M in cheque

Police are investigating a report of an alleged Robbery Under Arms committed on GT&T’s store (outlet) at the Giftland Mall to wit $13,420,487 (Guyana Currency) and $6,015,524 in cheque.

The robbery occurred on 2022-09-08 at about 21:45 hrs, at Giftland Mall, Liliendaal, ECD, by two unidentifiable males, both armed with handguns and dressed in the uniform used by a private security service that usually uplifts money from the outlet when it closes. This is according to a statement from the Guyana Police Force.

Police said investigations revealed that the GT&T outlet located on the second floor of Giftland Mall to the northern side of the food court, has a walkway to enter the mall and a wooden door which gives access to the supervisors’ room along with another door to the northern side to exit the mall from the back.

According to a 27-year-old employee (supervisor) of GT&T, two ‘Security officers’ from the private security firm would normally uplift cash at nights on completion of their duty.

On the date and time mentioned, the employee said that she along with five other staff members were on duty at the GTT booth, when the two suspects,  wearing face masks fully dressed in the said security uniforms, approached her and checked the bags with the cash as per usual.

One of the suspects went outside to the other staff members and brandished a handgun at them. They were instructed to ‘get on the floor’ to which they complied.  The other suspect who was in the supervisor’s room took out a handgun from the waist of his pants and told the supervisor to go on the floor, which she did.

The suspects placed duck tape on the hands and mouths of the  GTT staffers and locked them in the booth. The perpetrators then took the cash, exited through a back door, made their way into the Giftland parking lot and entered a white old model Raum (number unknown) and made good their escape heading east on the Railway Embankment.

A short while after, the staff members managed to free themselves and an alarm was raised but by that time the suspects had already left the scene.

Several persons were questioned and statements were taken. Investigations are ongoing.