Cops surmise stunt driver diverted attention from Hi-lo heist
POLICE INVESTIGATORS have theorised that a driver seen performing various stunts at the Fairview Shopping Complex in Montego Bay in the wee hours of Friday morning was using the noise from the vehicle’s engine to distract security personnel and to disguise the sound of the heavy equipment being used to execute a multimillion-dollar heist.
At daybreak, it was discovered that crooks had made off with cash amounting to over $2.5 million from a cambio, dozens of high-end cell phones from a store, and cash and other items estimated at several million of dollars from the Hi-lo supermarket.
Gracekennedy Group CEO Don Wehby said the break-in seemed well orchestrated.
Wehby, who manages Hi-lo Food Stores and Western Union chain, also stated that the management was distressed by the incident.
“The news of the break-in is very upsetting, coming soon after we just officially opened Hi-lo Negril Thursday night,” he told The Gleaner.
“I visited the location Friday morning to see what happened and speak with the staff, and from my observations, it is clearly a well-orchestrated robbery,” he said.
Wehby expressed hope that the thieves will be apprehended in short order.
According to the police, about 2 a.m. Friday morning, a motor vehicle was seen carrying out various stunts in the vicinity of the supermarket.
The crooks used powered tools, crowbars, sledge hammers and steel cutters to cut a hole in a wall at the rear of the building. They then entered the office and cut open two safes and stole the cash.
“It is believed that approximately five men carried out this robbery, three of whom were caught on the surveillance cameras looting the cambio, phone store and supermarket,” an investigator told The Gleaner.
The cop said that on Wednesday night a group of men, believed to have been the same culprits, attempted to rob a cambio located in the same complex.
“The men, who we believe were armed with similar tools, also went to this other cambio between Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, and carried out the same break-in attempt and started cutting a hole in the wall, but their attempts were foiled by security officers and the police, who responded quickly to the scene,” the senior cop said.