by Leigh-ann Worrell
June Gale wants to see the end of cash-for-gold schemes.
And the writing on her door proves it.
Two weeks ago, the Parish Land resident and her daughter who lives in the adjoining apartment were robbed of more than $20,000 in cash and jewellery. Gale has placed the blame squarely on controversial cash-for-gold enterprise.
“It has to stop somewhere and I intend tostart an all-out campaign about this cash for gold thing, because it happened to me. Somebody has to pay, no matter what it takes they have to find out who the persons are…,” an irate Gale told Barbados TODAY.
“People are selling their gold because they are afraid and the police …, not that they are not doing anything, but they can’t seem to get rid of this cash for gold. It is putting fear in people!…” the lifelong resident of Parish Land asserted. “Psychologically it had me broke down … and all like now I feel like if I was stripped, like if I was raped.”
Using the door the robbers destroyed as a sign board, the foreman at the National Conservation Commission described the incident and her call for justice and placed it in front of her house.
Gale said she realised something was amiss when she returned home from work on Thursday afternoon, around 3:45 p.m.
“I was home not feeling well for two days, the Tuesday and the Wednesday. I had the house shut up tight tight, not one window was open…,” she told the newspaper as she recalled the incident.
“I went to work the Thursday. When I get home and I get to the door, I realised the tongue of the deadbolt was out. I called my daughter…, she lives in the apartment behind … and asked if she went into the house and she said ‘no’.”
Gale said she checked her home carefully and realised a pair of gold earrings were missing and the keys she had left on the table were now in a chair. Her refrigerator, stocked with over $250 in goods, was also ransacked.
“I peep in the kitchen and I saw the door that leads from my house to the apartment …, the thing I had to block it off was moved… I open the bedroom door and I see all of my things scatter out pun de floor. Every drawer, they even lift up the bed — everything, everything, everything!” she continued.
Gale noted that her laptop, computer and Kindle tablet were all untouched, which confirmed her belief that the culprits were primarily after her jewellery. So far, Gale has spent $400 replacing locks and the door.
Furthermore, she believed mounting the campaign, which will also include the social media, was a way of making locals more aware of the impact these robberies can have.
“I want all of Barbados to know that it is all of our business. People are taking it as a casual affair. If they had come in there when I was in there, not feeling well, what would have happened?” she asked.
The robbery has been reported to the police.
Gale noted that while this is the first time she was robbed, similar incidents had occurred in the area. leighannworrell@barbadostoday.bb