A BUSINESSMAN called for greater community involvement in the anti-crime fight after a joint operation with the police led to the recovery of more than $5,000 worth of stolen goods.
After an elderly site caretaker was brutalised in an armed robbery last week, Charles Beall, CEO of Clearwater Construction, said only a combined effort with the police could help halt violent crime trends.
Mr Beall said: “We have got to come together and stop this. If we don’t stop this violent crime trend developing in this homeland, it’s going to overwhelm us all. For them to steal is one thing but for them to beat and abuse this elderly man, leave him tied up in a pool of his own blood - it’s unacceptable.”
He added: “We can work together as a community, and find a common sense of identity and say what’s going on is unacceptable. I’ve had two close friends shot in the past 12 months.”
A group of men sawed through chains on the front gate of a large scale construction project managed by Clearwater on November 29, according to Mr Beall.
Mr Beall said: “Sometime between midnight and 2am, the men stormed into the old estate home on the property that was being used as a site office and storage facility for the furnishing of a 5,000 sq ft guest house. So there were flat screen TVs, refrigerators, appliances.
“They assaulted our caretaker, Philip Pierre, assaulted him, put a knife on his throat, and left him in a pool of blood wrapped in duct tape. They stole more than $8,000 worth of stuff, whatever they could carry.”
Mr Pierre, an employee for 43 years, was left traumatised, according to Mr Beall. A resident in the Bahamas for more than 15 years, Mr Beall served for five years as a Special Operations Officer in the United States Marine Corps.
Mr Beall said: “I have about 75 men that work for Clearwater, hardworking, honest, loyal men that know this old man and love him. They were furious when I told them that Philip was severely beaten and abused, so for three days we canvassed the island.
“When we found out who these guys were, we met with police and the head of the criminal investigation division at Cable Beach police station.”
“They did an outstanding job, he gave me three of the best officers and they arrested one guy on Tuesday and on Thursday, four of us went and caught someone who confessed that he had a role in the beating and theft. We went into a building near his home and with police found much of the stolen goods.”
He added: “The police in this case did an outstanding job in helping me. They found it unusual that I got right in the middle of this, but we had been tracking these guys down for three days and I said to the police, we can let this keep going on but this is one time where we can win.
“I’ve found them, so let’s go get them, and that’s what we did. We went in an unmarked car and made the arrests, and recovered most of the stolen items.”
Mr Beall lauded police efforts, saying that one officer used his private vehicle to conduct the raid as there were no unmarked vehicles available for use at the time.
Comments
ThisIsOurs 11 years ago
Mr Beall, I don't know, its a huge problem and what you did is obviously part of the solution. Another requirement is for the PM to weed out corruption in his cabinet and the government as a whole. Practices that they KNOW about and have allowed to go on unchecked for decades must be stopped. The massive fraud ongoing at NIB is disgraceful. The fact that Stephano Greene was fighting to keep it in place is shameful. The fact that Shane Gibson defended illegal activity...well, no surprise really. No more secret deals with investors, no more taking money off the top of contracts awarded, no more using the treasury, BOB and NIB as your personal bank account, no more granting contracts to your shell company or your cousin, no more funding human smuggling, no more bringing in handguns to sell, shutdown those webshop seeds of corruption....all of that must happen. We can't justify some crime and expect the crime problem to go away. Crime is our culture and the government has put more money into promoting it than any tourism campaign over the past 40yrs. All of the million dollar homes, fancy suits, fast women, expensive cars, lifestyles of the rich and famous, no advertising campaign could top it. Everybody wants that fast rise to riches now. Want crime to stop, reign in the corruption in govt. have the Honorable George Smith publicly apologize for his "why does it matter how you made your money" comment. (Pull the tape from Darrell Miller's referendum debate show)
ThisIsOurs 11 years ago
Oh I forgot the accepted ongoing practice of massive theft of crown land
Honestman 11 years ago
Great post and spot on in every aspect. The bible says "the love of money is the root of all evil" and here we are, a supposedly Christian country where our citizens worship the mighty dollar and "it doesn't matter how you make your money" or how your family made theirs. Until citizens change their value system, this country will continue in its spiritual decline. When will enough be enough? Lord only knows but it must start by the voting out of office all governments and politicians who refuse to be accountable to the tax paying public.
John 11 years ago
Before closing down my business in Nassau, started to have up to SIXTEEN break-ins a year. Figure an average of $5,000.00 per break-in and you can see what expense crime has on business operations. That does not include the money spent on security, repairing damage done by thieves, survaillence systems and the like. The criminals came through glass doors, burgular bars, double burgular bars, the roof, the air conditioning system. They by- passed alarms and cameras and broke into the most secure parts of the premises. They knew how to kill or put guard dogs to sleep. Then you found out that the break-ins were not always just to steal your property. You had friends that were involved, the alarm company employees were involved, customers, employees, competitors set you up for break-ins. Neighbors turned a blind eye for part of the take and even the police. Yes the police were also involved and that is what led to my decision to close. I got an alarm call one night and went to check out the premises where the business was located. I met a police car there and as I approached they drove towards me. The officers assured me that they had been on the property for a while and had checked it thoroughly and that everything was ok. They said that there was no need for me to check any further and I should leave because they were leaving and did not want to leave me there alone. So putting my fate in the officers I left. I arrived home a few minutes later only to get a call from the alarm monitoring company to say they were getting signals indicating that someone was still in the building. I told them that the police had checked the building and that everything was secure. But I got a call from the alarm company like 45 minutes later saying they were still getting signals indicating that there was movement in the building. So I returned to the business, only to find that the place was severely ranshacked. The police car I had seen earlier was no where in sight and it became obviously apparent that the police had acted as the lookout for this burgulary, using our police cars and manpower. While they distracted me, persons were in the building trying to break open a safe. This matter was promised to be investigated to determine who the officers on the scene that night were, but to this day not a peek or a crack has been said.. so now the business is closed after losing close to $400,000 in break-ins alone over a 15 year period.
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