AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Belize by District Belize District Hold up's At Best Western and Belize HealthCare Hospital

Two major robberies in just 30 hours have shaken up a city that's very used to high levels of crime. But, these ones were different: the criminals robbed a hospital on Sunday morning and a top hotel on Monday morning.

Is this the birth of a new criminal duo or simply a sign of the times striking at the institutions that were previously thought of as off-limits?

Cherisse Halsall has the stats on both.

There were two daring, high profile armed robberies over the weekend at leading service providers on the northside.

It Started at 7:55 on Sunday morning when the Belize HealthCare partners hospital was hit by by two firearm wielding creole men dressed in grey and wearing blue fishermen masks. They pointed those guns at the cashier and the security guard:

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, ComPol's Office
"So far the security on duty at the Health Care partners relayed that he was relieved of his cell phone and his wallet by two armed men that arrived at the hospital in a red in color SUV. The persons then proceeded to rob the on-duty cashier of an undisclosed amount of cash and then they walked out of the building into the vehicle that dropped them off and they made good their escape. What I relayed to you is what we got from the victims of this robbery."

Cherisse Halsall:
"Sir, do you believe that these robbers would have had experience with the hospital and is it any type of inside job?"

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, ComPol's Office
"Well, first of all when you walk into a hospital like that there are clear markings as to where the cashier is located, the receptionist area, you wouldn't have to have any inside information. It's just people that studied what they wanted to excite and unfortunately as you know, as we all know the criminal's study whatever institution and even some of them study the police department when they want to commit a crime of this nature. So for us to go ahead of ourselves and say that they had insider knowledge it's not here nor there."

But while Yearwood ruled out an inside job in the case of Healthcare partners, that may just have been the case in this week's second high profile robbery.

That's because the robbers, also two creole men, are thought to have had specific knowledge of the hotel's maintenance manager's movements and knew the exact time that he would walk out with the deposit bag.

Manager of the Hotel Ted Tejada was tight-lipped today asking our news camera's via text to allow him time to work with police in order to solve the issue.

And while we are used to hearing of robberies at retail outlets like gas stations and retail stores, it's almost unprecedented to hear of a hotel and a hospital robbed, and especially within 30 hours of each other.

One has to wonder what's driving it - and if it's deepening social desperation. The police press officer says no he offered an alternate opportunist theory.

Cherisse Halsall:
"Sir, just seconds ago breaking information that Biltmore was robbed."

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, ComPol's Office
"If its seconds ago I can't answer that."

Cherisse Halsall:
"I know you can't answer that, but leads me to back to what I wanted to ask about Belize Health Care Partners, do you feel that a robbery of an institution like that means that the public is getting desperate in these hard and austere times?"

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, ComPol's Office
"Crimes happen when the opportunity arises for us to categorize them and say that times are contributing to it. No matter what the times are, if it's good or bad criminals are always out there generating their own crime, so for us to marginalize this and say that the times contributed. It's unfair to answer that question."

Police are reviewing surveillance video and have the names of the persons to whom the vehicles are registered.

Again while both robberies were carried out by two creole men the getaway cars were different. The armed robbery at HealthCare partners was carried out in a red SUV, while the robbers at the Biltmore used a black Honda Pilot vehicle.

Channel 7

Three Suspects Arrested in Two Belize City Robberies

Belize City police have arrested three men whom they believe were involved in recent armed robberies at Belize Healthcare Partners Limited and the Biltmore Plaza Hotel. The incidents made headlines earlier this week when the suspects entered B.H.P.L. on Sunday morning and stole monies and personal items from employees at gunpoint. On Monday, another pair of men carried out the same crime at the Biltmore. Investigators later discovered that Banak Street resident Kylon Craig reportedly participated in both robberies. News Five's Isani Cayetano has an update on that story.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

A nexus between two daring armed robberies that occurred in Belize City within twenty-four hours of each other is yet to be formally established by the Belize Police Department, though they are likely connected.� On the morning of July fourth, a pair of thieves entered Belize Healthcare Partners Limited.� One of them was toting a firearm and proceeded to relieve the security guard of a wallet containing one hundred and seventy dollars, as well as a cell phone.� The men advanced to the cashier section where they robbed her of five hundred dollars from a cash pan, as well as an undisclosed sum from another box.� They also took her cell phone.� Both men fled the scene in a Honda Pilot.� The following day, a duo of armed thieves also approached a maintenance manager at the Biltmore Plaza.� According to Basilio Novelo, sometime shortly after eleven a.m., he was walking towards his manager's vehicle in the parking lot of the hotel when he was accosted by two men.� Novelo was reportedly going to deposit a money bag containing an undisclosed sum when he was robbed.� Both men also escaped in a Honda Pilot.� Diligent police work led to several arrests and a possible link has been established between both crimes.� Thirty-year-old Kylon Craig is accused of participating in those robberies along with Duceberry Bowen for the BHPL incident and nineteen-year-old Alyon Domingo for the Biltmore job.� In the first instance, Craig and Bowen were charged jointly for robbery, while he was also charged jointly with Domingo on three counts of robbery.

Channel 5