AFTER 15 years and four break-ins — the latest occurring during the passage of Hurricane Melissa — cookshop operator Millard Mitchell refuses to leave the Rocky Hill, St Elizabeth, location that is the home of his business place.

The shop was passed down to him by his brother, and despite repeated attempts to secure the structure with locks and grilles, nothing has been able to stop the thieves.

Also a livestock farmer, Mitchell said he has experienced his fair share of losses on the agriculture side due to the same thieves, but he’ll never give up.

With more than 80 pounds of meat lost, some spoiling because of a lack of electricity and others taken by robbers, he’s urging the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) to speed up restoration efforts so that he can get back in business.

“[The hurricane] mash me up. It lick off the shop top [roof]… and they loot me the same night of the storm. After the shop’s roof blew off, they broke in and took out what they wanted to take out. When I come back I don’t see some of my goods there; I did have dry goods like bulla [cake], bread, and those things, and they’re gone,” he told the Jamaica Observer in the community last week Wednesday.

“I did have things in the fridge and I ended up losing them same way — chicken and meat stuff. They take and leave some, but at the same time it [will still] end up not [being] good [enough for sale] because if you have things like that and people tamper with it, it nuh good same way. We have to now just deal with dry goods alone…I have [a generator] at home on standby but it cannot really work for this,” he shared.

Not surprised by the destruction left behind by Melissa, Mitchell said, like he’s done many times prior, he’s planning to start over.

“There is nothing that I can do; I just have to pray to God. When I am out here at night I wonder if any gunman a guh come on mi same way…I’ve been down dem road here regularly — there is nothing you can do. I leave the light on and they break in it same way. I grilled it up and put back on the grille [after they broke in], but they still come back — and because it is a zinc [roof], they cut it and come back [inside].

“You have to bounce back. I have animals up in the hills same way, and sometimes when I get up in the morning I just see the goat throat cut or the goat missing, so I have been through it. It’s not the first and the last — them a guh forever thief from me.

“Me know me nah thief from nobody, so that’s it. We just do what we have to do,” he reasoned.

Mitchell told the Sunday Observer that he has since given up on the goat business but he still rears pigs, which he is hoping can hold him over until power is restored in his community. He said he is also relying on relatives to help him get by but needs the electricity so that he can get his business up and running again.

His days, once filled with the hustle and bustle of running the cookshop, are now quiet.

“The storm lay me back so I don’t have anything to do now. The days look dark. I have bills, and I have to eat every day. Some of the bills have to be on hold right now,” he explained.

While he has replaced the roof on his cookshop, Mitchell said he is fearful he’ll have to wait until next year before power is restored — and he’s worried about how he’ll get by until then.

He again urged JPS to “speed up the light” so that he can purchase and store meat supplies needed to kick-start his cookshop operation.

“They need to give us a deadline when we a get back light so that we can prepare, because normally the people them who a raise them little chicken they would want to know when they can go back into the chicken business so that them can get light to kill them and put on fridge,” he explained.

In the meantime, he is appealing for assistance to get some dry goods for his cookshop so that he can still earn a living.

“If me get some goods me would be really grateful,” Mitchell said.