‘Stick it up, give me everything you got. If you run ah go shoot you’

National Swimming Coach, Rickydene Alexander was robbed at gun point last Friday, about 1:40 p.m., while on his way to his workplace at the National Sports Council’s office at the Arnos Vale Playing Field.{{more}}

The daring robbery was done in full view of persons who were at a nearby shop.

Alexander told SEARCHLIGHT that he was returning from one of his daily errands in Kingstown, when he came face to face with the robber.

“I was standing at the top entrance waiting for a ride to go down with Steve Wallace,” Alexander recalled.

At that point he was approached by a tall man, wearing a black tee shirt and a dark blue denim jeans. The young man was also said to be wearing a green cap pulled over his face, a pair of dark shades, and a strapped knap sack over his shoulder.

Alexander said that the robber, whom he thought was in his late teens or early twenties, pulled a gun from the bag and pointed it to his chest.

“‘Stick it up, give me everything you got. If you run ah go shoot you’,” Alexander recalled the robber saying.

“While he was patting me down, I was terrified, but my eyes were on the gun,” said Alexander as he recounted the frightening ordeal, which he said lasted for close to two minutes.

The coach was relieved of an envelope with a cheque, a black bag with some medication, two cellular phones, a Nokia and a Coral, his house keys, his bank book, his national identification card and EC$20.

“He then ran in the direction of the Arnos Vale Methodist Church to the Pole Yard area,” a distraught Alexander told SEARCHLIGHT last Saturday morning.

Alexander revealed that the keys were retrieved, sometime later.

The NSC employee thought that the whole operation was planned as he normally goes for the workers’ fortnight’s wages, and last Friday was that occasion.

He, however, thought that divine intervention prevented him from suffering major losses as on that day he was not carrying the cash.

Following the escape of his attacker, Alexander said he then ran to the nearby shop on the bridge and sought consolation from the occupants.

Alexander revealed that the occupants said they thought it was a law enforcement officer doing a routine check on him.

It was then his friend, Wallace, turned up and carried him to the NSC’s office, located about 300 meters from where the robbery took place.

Incidentally, Wallace was the victim of a similar daylight robbery in Kingstown last year.

Still traumatised, Alexander said on Saturday: “I did not sleep last night.”

Counting his blessings, Alexander said he would not like to experience such an encounter again. He praised the police for their swift action of arriving on the scene, minutes after the matter was reported to them by his superiors. (RT)