Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

The trau­ma of be­ing held at gun­point dur­ing a home in­va­sion con­tin­ued to haunt two el­der­ly friends yes­ter­day, days af­ter they were robbed of their pen­sion mon­ey and car in Mayo.

Ba­boolal Ram­narace, 81, and Min­nie Ho­sein, 67, both of Mayo, were at Ram­narace’s home on Cot­ton Hill Road when they were at­tacked.

Ear­li­er that day, Ram­narace and Ho­sein had gone to the bank and bought gro­ceries with their pen­sion mon­ey be­fore re­turn­ing to Ram­narace’s home.

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports, Ho­sein was in the kitchen when she was ac­cost­ed by a gun­man who de­mand­ed mon­ey and the keys to the car.

She said they shoved a cloth in her mouth and forced her in­to the bed­room.

“I was hot­ting the four chick­en leg. I not ex­pect­ing noth­ing and this per­son just put the gun here (point­ing to her head). ‘Where the mon­ey, where the key, where the car.’ I start to bawl. And they take a kitchen thing (tow­el) and shove it in my mouth.”

She said they tied her hands with a tie strap and stole $1,500 from her and $2,000 from Ba­boolal, as well as their phones and her torch­light.

She said every­thing hap­pened very fast, but it was the most ter­ri­fy­ing or­deal she had ever ex­pe­ri­enced.

Re­call­ing the in­ci­dent, Ba­boolal said, “Be­tween sleep and wake, I hear the woman bawl­ing in the kitchen. I say she prob­a­bly see some crea­ture in the kitchen and bawl­ing.”

He said one of the ban­dits grabbed him and jammed a gun against his ear and bound him with tie straps, and they al­so brought Ho­sein in­to the room.

He said they shoved a pil­low­case in his mouth. “If you know how this wor­ry­ing me. I study­ing cry­ing for that. The man put the gun by my ears, you know.”

Af­ter they left, Ho­sein used a knife to cut her­self free and Ram­narace.

She fell and in­jured her right arm while fran­ti­cal­ly run­ning to the neigh­bour for help.

Ram­narace said he filled the gas tank of his sil­ver B-14 car and bought enough gro­ceries to last him un­til he re­ceives his pen­sion again.

De­scrib­ing the area as a qui­et and peace­ful, he said even the neigh­bour­hood was shocked over the in­ci­dent.

“I liv­ing a re­al sweet life and they do that to me, a man like me? he said.

Ram­narace said he was sav­ing his mon­ey to re­pair a leak­ing gal­vanised roof over the kitchen.

He be­lieves he was tar­get­ed for his car and pen­sion.

To the peo­ple com­mit­ting crimes, he said, “You have to change and look for God. I am a very spir­i­tu­al for­ward man.”

Gas­par­il­lo po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the in­ci­dent.