Police are on the hunt for three bandits who invaded and robbed the San Fernando home of an elderly woman and her autistic daughter on Tuesday morning.
The 65-year-old widow and grandmother of two and her autistic daughter, who is in her 40s, were asleep at home around 2am, when the bandits jumped a wall to the house on the SS Erin Road and picked the locks to a metal burglar-proofing gate then another door to enter.
The elderly woman said they were asleep in a bedroom on the upper floor of their house when they awoke to find three masked men—one with a firearm and another with a length of iron pipe —in the room.
The bandits bound the hands and feet of the women with electrical cords.
The woman, in an Express interview, said:
“They had a gun and a piece of iron. We were crying, my daughter was crying, and I asked them why are they doing this. One of them told me that this is their job.”
She has lived at the home for over 40 years in Phillipine, near Palmiste Park.
She said: “I woke up and saw the three men in the room. One of the bandits put his finger to his lips and told me ‘hush’ and said, ‘Where is the money?’ Apparently, they knew I had collected rent. They were going to assault my daughter and I begged them to leave us alone. My daughter was crying. I begged them and cried and told them to take what they wanted and to please not harm us. They decided to leave us, and one of them sat by the bedhead and put the gun to my head while the others went into the rooms searching through.”
She said the bandits were also equipped with walkie-talkies and were speaking to someone as they ransacked the bedrooms.
They stole rent money that the woman had collected from her tenants that day, US currency, her jewelry that was in her chest of drawers, a sound system, bottles of alcohol and the DVR for the security cameras.
The then made off in the family’s Nissan Qashqai SUV.
The criminals took the keys to her vehicle and as they packed the loot in it, they threw her daughter’s wheelchair on the ground.
They then sped off, leaving the house open and the mother and daughter tied up.
The elderly woman said she struggled for about an hour to free herself until she loosened the cords around her hands, untied her daughter, and contacted family members who contacted the police.
Police officers of the San Fernando Police Station responded and an all-points bulletin was issued for the vehicle.
However, the vehicle was not found and no one arrested.