Reward pledge soars over home invasion
(CNS): A concerted effort by a family who were the victims of the latest home invasion has raised pledges from the private sector for one of the largest rewards ever offered for the conviction of armed robbers in Cayman. Around $110,000 has been pledged to find the armed gang that burst into a home in Governor’s Harbour last Friday and stole money raised for a local charity in front of two young children who were home with their sitter.
Chris Duggan from Cayman CrimeStoppers said that the local branch of the Miami-based NGO, which facilitates an anonymous tip line for reporting crime, already has a standing pledge from the private sector to facilitate a reward of $50,000 for any gun-related crime. But in this case the victims have been campaigning to attract more pledges from local businesses to offer this much larger reward. Duggan said it was important that the community act to prevent these terrifying crimes across Grand Cayman, regardless of where they happen.
“We can’t sit back and watch these criminals destroy our community and terrorize our children like this,” Duggan told CNS, as he pointed to another similar home invasion in West Bay earlier this month, when a grandmother and her five-year-old granddaughter were also terrorized by masked robbers looking for cash.
Duggan explained that CrimeStoppers cannot campaign for increased rewards as it is against the international charters but the crime busting charity can facilitate pledged rewards, such as the $110,000 now on offer in this case, if the victims or other members of the community can raise the support.
Urging the community to use the anonymous tip line if they had any information on any crime, including the murder on Wednesday night in George Town, Duggan said there is a standing reward of $50k for any crime where firearms are used or brandished.
The reward in the Governor’s Harbour case was raised by the parents of the two children who were home with a sitter when the masked armed men burst in and demanded the cash. The little boy is said to have hidden in his bedroom closet, while the little girl was described as being held captive in the kitchen by the armed gang with the sitter until the ordeal was over. In an email campaign about the robbery Duggan said the family had “lived its worst nightmare”, as he warned that the villains would strike again unless they were caught.
The father said the RCIPS cannot rid the country of the criminals alone, as he appealed for help and pledges to boost the CrimeStoppers reward to make people come forward. He said this would also show the criminals that the community was serious about coming together to fight crime.
Friday’s home invasion was perpetrated by three men, as was the case in a home invasion in Billy Manderson Drive on 3 June, where the masked men also appeared to be looking for cash that they believed was hidden in the West Bay home. The descriptions given of one of the men, who appears to choose flamboyant outfits for his criminal enterprises, was similar in both cases but police have not yet stated if they believe this was the same gang or whether they are looking for at least two gangs of home invaders.
15,20 yrs. ago Cayman was a place that you could leave your front door open at anytime of the night while everyone sleeps, the only home invaders to worry about at that time were the mosquitoes but now that Cayman has opened our doors to every part of the world that causes these types of influences, and now the locals are the ones to blame, yeah right, Cayman was next to perfect with the locals living amongst each other back then, now we got people here from countries that beheadings are their way of life.
Idiot, 12:23. Look at the names of the men arrested for all these despicable crimes. They are 90% born Caymanian and if you talk to teachers who have been here for 30 years or more they will tell you these guys were heading there from the age of 10. Stop with the “they all came from abroad” shit. It just reveals you as very dim mentally.
These guys may call themselves Caymanian to fool the courts into giving them slaps on the wrist, but we all know they have foreign origins other than Cayman.
Idiot 12:21, I said look at the names, repeat, the names, (and also the weekly Court Lists) and then ask their former teachers and they will confirm that they are mostly 100% born Caymanians, neglected from birth into already dysfunctional homes with no fathers, mashing up the school system from age 10 or even younger and in prison by age 19. But they get out of prison enough (before going back in again) to make more babies with stupid girls with no self esteem but with plenty of that baby making whatsit and these resulting kids from the CAYMANIAN gangstas of 30 years ago and their trashy girlfriends have in turn mashed up the school system and THEIR children are now in the primary schools doing the same. It is a hellacious vicious circle and it is ruining these islands but STOP pretending they are outsiders, they are NOT. They are our own.
Everyone on this island has foreign origins as the island was uninhabited a few hundred years ago. On that note, what year do you use to determine if someone has “foreign origins” in your statement above?
Please let me know when you have a moment. Just curious where we should set the origin cutoff.
Thanks!
Idiot. What you are implying is that caymanians are entitled to be outside the law and sentencing guidelines when convicted.
With mentality like this, no wonder the place is being flushed down the pan by its own!
Just about as stupid a comment as I have ever read…. The home invasion may very well be done by Caymanians… Police suspect a local gang… Highly doubt a cell of muslim Philipinos is at work here. Think before you barf on the internet…
If I was one of the robbers I would turn in my fellow robber collect the award and find a new crew and do it again…….just saying
These thugs need to be stopped, where do I go to donate? Those who know will cave and talk for a big enough payout, as they have zero morals. If they are off the streets we are aĺl better off. Sometimes you have to dance with the devil to catch him.
So if they had high moral standards they wouldn’t grass on their buddies? You’ve got it so twisted there mate, I guess Legge was right.
Where is the reward for the kids that are getting shot every year,gang related or not…this is why there is a divide in this country. All for one and none for all…
I know what you mean, but if friends and family of the kids being shot who are with them won’t talk, throwing cash at the problem won’t help. Besides, it does say that there’s a standing $50k reward for any gun crime, which I didn’t appreciate. So if the shooting of a piece of crap gangster is worthy of a $50k reward, then a home invasion with three armed criminals and kids involved is easily worth $110k imho.
Strange how someone can walk off the street, enter a home and walk straight to the cash. Hello!! Is everybody sleeping? Somebody has to be awake.
There was a babysitter with two children there and awake, and three people with guns kicked the door in.
Read the article and you will see that there is a standing reward of $50,000 for providing information leading to the arrest and conviction of any criminal committing any crime involving firearms. There’s your answer Irishman. Just need to read the story.
You want to reward gangsters so they can buy more guns and terrorize more people.
The gang members have taken the risk of violence while making life awful for good people. I care not what happens to them.
They get their reward in Heaven…
I simply don’t care about the gangstas killing gangstas. I do care about good law-abiding people being the victim of violent crime. If you want to hug the criminals and tell us they are misunderstood victims you can. i see them as vermin.
Screw them all. I don’t care what they do in the silly games as long as good people don’t get hurt.
A little strange!! I am no CID but if I was I would know who to question relentlessly?
Maybe you should call the number above and collect your money.
4:11 a little common sense is not common, in most scenarios. Think about that.
2:37 you are spot on. The stupidity of the folks that protect us, leaves one to wonder, what next. Some of those folks couldn’t get themselves out of a wet paper bag.
$110,000 to catch these robbers! and they can even invest in the youth for scholarships or funding for sports to go over seas to better themselves!.. no wonder we have bandits!!
Huh?
2.03pm. I agree with you on this. But this is something to address to your government. It is my understanding the award money are from a private party.
Damn! I wish I knew who it was!
Wow, where I feel bad about the people, how come non of any of the other home invasions got so much interest, donations, police investigations…just asking.
Because children were involved. Duh
4:12pm children or no children home invasion is home invasion, an attempted rape in a home invasion is as traumatic if not more, so hence police investigations, news time, etc should be the same!!!
A church was broken into and robbed the other day. Heard nothing from Mr. Duggan or Crimestoppers. That money was just as charitable. Feel sorry for the family here and especially the kids and I hope the criminals are caught and dealt with to the fullest extent of the law, but Crimestoppers should treat these issues fairly across the board. If private organisations want to donate reward money for a particular crime they should do so under their own name, either individually or collectively.
Nobody feels sorry for the church. How much of our money did they get for “Nation Building”?
Crime Stoppers DOES treat all issues of crime fairly across the board. Whether or not private organisations wish to donate to the collective reward for a certain crime is up to the organisation. Many rewards have already been given this year from Crime Stoppers but are not made public.
Every church takes 10 per cent “tithe” from each salary every month.
Yes that “charitable money” should be reported to crime stoppers and it should be investigated.
If you do not pay, does this limit the amount of divine intervention one can receive or does it just reduce prayer time?
I agree 1:41pm, if they are going to go about it like this, they should do the same for the poorer set of citizens on the island. What is good for the goose should be good for the gander, but that will never happen
Why don’t you do something to make happen, and stop the self defeating whining?
4.24 think you missed the point. Entirely. Or maybe just seen a pile of cash and think you are entitled?
Watch, wait and see what happens if there is another home invasion. Will the actions be the same or it is because the CoP is living in that area. Just stating the obvious.
For people to walk in off the street and take money from a house that they are not accustomed to visiting, makes one wonder, if they were not assisted. How would they know to go to a specific room and find cash? Seems suspicious to me, our were they visitors unknown to the family? Just curious.
Its pretty obvious to me, that this was set up by locals, carried out by foreigners who then escaped on the 34ft boat which was taken from the same street.
They need to check flights that came in that day or that week, I bet that there are a few names on the itinerary of people that cannot be located on Island.
Yeh, all those tourists for one thing. Did you really write that?
I was referring to the Jamaican and Honduran flights………
How did they know where the money was?
Good question. Are they mind readers?
It’s called I’m the robber with a gun show me the money it’s that simple……however I do believe that they got information as to which house to rob…..
Yes, they just got lucky pocking on a the one house with a huge amount of cash sitting in a back room for no good reason.
“no good reason” = “was collecting for charity”
Thankfully the majority of funds had already been deposited, but you can’t expect people to run to the bank every 10 minutes. At any rate, it wasn’t the robbers’ money, THEY’RE the only ones with no good reason to have it.
You really can expect people to put such cash in a bank or at least an office safe especially in such a lawless place.