WHITEHOUSE, St James – The executive of the Whitehouse Fisherfolk co-operative have retained a lawyer to help them recover millions of dollars worth of lobsters they say were stolen from them over a one-year period.

The executive’s decision to seek legal representation follows the collapse of the negotiations which the thieves initiated with them after being caught red-handed while stealing the lobsters last month.

“We have no choice but to get a lawyer now, according to how things are going,” said Troy Jumpp, president of Whitehouse Fisherfolk

co-operative.

According to Jumpp, after noticing a persistent reduction in the number of lobsters which they have been storing live in enclosed traps since last November, he – along with other members of the executive – kept close watch last month on October 11 awating the thieves.

“Sure enough we saw two men, natives of the Dominican Republic whom we later found out worked for a company here, diving down to steal our lobsters. We caught them red- handed,” Jumpp told the Observer West.

According to Jumpp, after they reported the matter to the Marine police and the Coral Gardens police station, the men offered to settle the matter by paying for the stolen crustaceans, which are considered a delicacy, especially in the hotel industry.

However, the talks which took place in the boardroom of a Spanish hotel here, never translated to the promised payment of J$1.5 million.

“We had the meeting at the hotel and came to an agreement with the help of the hotel’s Human Resource department, whereby the money would be distributed to the victims of this theft. Right after we left I began to get calls from the Tourism Product Development Company saying that we were extorting and harassing the hotel for money and threatening to bomb it up. Then we heard that the thieves had left the island for the Dominican Republic and now we are hearing that they are still here on other properties. So before this thing gets any worse we have put it in the hands of our lawyers,” Jumpp told the Observer West.

Constable Shamar Grant of the Marine police in St James confirmed the reported theft. “Yes, we are investigating the matter of the stolen lobsters, but we can’t divulge much more at this stage,” he told the Observer West.