Vermont man beaten, shot during burglary at his home

He was beaten about his face and body with a cutlass, stifled with a sheet and then shot in the left leg.{{more}}

This is the horrible experience 69-year-old Vermont resident Clarence Straker lived through during the wee hours of

Sunday, January 16, when two intruders broke into his house demanding money, among other things.

Visibly in pain, an aching Straker recounted the ordeal from his bed at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.

Straker said he and his wife were asleep in their bedroom at about 3 a.m. when he sensed someone standing over him.

“I feel the sheet covering my head and the person telling me to stay down, stay down, we want the money, where is the money?” he recalled.

Straker, who sells cooking gas and has owned and operated a shop for the past 10 years, said he told the men he had no money because they bought gas on Friday (January 15).

His wife, who was next to him, told the men that $200 was in a bag in the room, which they could take.

“I told them that that was the only money we have in the house and they still been stifling me,” said Straker.

He said he managed to push away the sheet from his face and run towards the clothes closet, after which he said, two gunshots were fired into the mirror of their dresser.

“Them bust two bullets in the mirror and when I dey by the wardrobe area, I pull the ironing board close to me, so I could shield myself,” he said.

When he attempted to exit the bedroom door, Straker said one of the intruders said, “We have to slow he down.”

That’s when he sustained the gunshot to his leg.

“All I hear is bam and that is when I dropped to the ground and they beat me all in my head with a cutlass until my face was black and blue,” he said.

He also sustained cuts to his fingers and arm.

Shortly after, the men took the keys to the shop and made off with quantity of items from Straker’s shop.

However, the man, who worked at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital as a male attendant for 33 years before retiring, said he is grateful that his life and his wife’s were spared.

“I am glad that I have life, but thieves should just leave if they ain’t get no money…Its just height of wickedness!” he said.

Straker is the second businessman in the space of a week to be attacked in his home.

On January 11, a businessman of Queen’s Drive was attacked at approximately 12:30 a.m. by two men armed with a gun and a knife.

After giving them EC$240 and a sum of US dollars, the burglars felt the sum was insufficient and started to beat him.

He sustained wounds to his head, face, neck, and a finger.

Up to press time no arrests have been made in the matters. (KW)