Cops tackle truck-stealing ring in St Ann, Trelawny
FALMOUTH, Trelawny — The police in Trelawny and St Ann are grappling with a truck stealing ring in the two neighbouring parishes since the start of the year.
The robbers’ modus operandi is to pose as customers and charter haulage contractors operating small trucks to deliver construction material purchased at hardware stores, the police say.
The haulage contractors are then told to deliver the material at pre-arranged locations where two or three armed men are lying in wait, and who then steal the vehicles.
About 2:00 pm, on Thursday, March 17, a 61-year-old Trelawny man was held up and robbed of his Isuzu truck and other items by men in a section of the parish.
Police report that the driver was hired by a man to deliver one yard of stone and 30 building blocks purchased at a popular hardware in Falmouth.
After collecting the building material, he was accompanied by the man who had ordered the goods to a district outside the town centre.
Upon arrival at the location, the truck driver was pounced upon by two armed thugs. The driver was subsequently robbed of $10,000 in cash and his cellular phone, valued at $20,000. The man who had chartered the truck then reportedly drove away the vehicle while his two accomplices held the truck driver at gun point for two hours before releasing him.
All three hoodlums reportedly wore black disposable masks covering their faces.
The previous Thursday a small truck operator who was hired to transport 30 building blocks in the parish was held up and robbed of his vehicle.
Commander of the St Ann Police Divison Senior Superintendent (SSP) Dwight Powell told the Jamaica Observer that since the start of the year the police have recorded five similar cases in the garden parish.
Powell, who said that the cops are closing in on the operators of the truck stealing ring, also theorised that they are the same individuals operating across the two bordering parishes.
“We are following some strong leads and in a little while we will be able to crack it. We have not recovered any of the trucks as yet. We have the same issue and I believe it might be the same people,” he said.
