In a daring early morning heist five gunmen robbed two Regent Street stores and attempted to attack another before escaping in the direction of King Street.

The Sales Supervisor at Bhojwani's Dry Goods store located at 98 Regent Street between Wellington and King streets told Stabroek News that the store opened around 8.45 am and personnel were just settling in for the day when the robbery occurred.

Around 9 am two customers entered the store, reports said, and approached the sales supervisor. They told him they were interested in an item located at the south-eastern end of the store. The store is on the northern side of Regent Street and stretches northward from its Regent Street entrance.

They held his attention there while two other armed men confronted the security guard, who is attached to the Crime Busters Security Force, and took him behind the same counter with the sales supervisor. Two of them remained there while another stood in the main passageway in the store.

The other two moved to the cashiers' section, which is not caged and demanded money. They ransacked the place and got just over $100,000, the supervisor said, after which they filed quietly out of the store and went in the direction of King Street. The supervisor estimated that the hold-up lasted for 25 minutes. It left staff of the store shocked and shaken up. "In my ten years of working at this place of business this has never happened," the supervisor said. He explained that during the ordeal persons were ordered to "keep your mouth shut," by the bandits.

The gunmen threw a molotov cocktail (channa bomb) inside Alim Shah's store on Regent Street which exploded and burnt garments and other items on sale in the store. Fortunately, no one was injured, although staff and customers in the premises at the time got the scare of their life.

Around the same time or shortly after the attack at Bhojwani's two men entered Alim Shah's Dry Goods store at 97 Regent Street and approached the cashier. Manager Saheed Lakeram told Stabroek News that around 9.15 am two men went into the store posing as customers.

As they got to the cashier area, which again was not caged, one of them took out a gun, pointed it at the cashier and said "no one make a move". He went into the cahier area and asked about the safe. The proprietor told them there was no safe and ordered the cashier to open the cash register.

At this point the other bandit went behind the counter and removed $25,000 from the drawer. They then walked calmly out of the store towards King Street, "without hurting anybody or terrorising any customers," said the manager. He had observed about three other customers standing closer to the front of the store. The men spent about five minutes in the store the manager noted.

The elderly security guard at Alim Shah, Bertram Harry said he was not aware that anything was wrong in the store. At the time of the robbery he was occupied distributing donations to the needy. He was told shortly after the men had left to close the doors of the store and that was when he learnt of the occurrence. However, the store resumed business shortly after the incident. When Stabroek News got to the scene, customers were purchasing items oblivious to what had transpired only a few moments earlier.

A nearby store narrowly avoided being robbed as well. The dry goods retailer was alerted to the presence of one of the bandits and closed the inner grill door before anything could happen there.

In a strange twist it was revealed by Samuels that the men had told the security guard at Bhojwani's about a month ago they are targeting the store for a robbery. Reports were made to the police and statements taken but according to information from the sales supervisor the only difference in their approach was a heightened alertness.

According to Manager of Crime Busters, Mark Samuels two of the men were standing outside the store before the attack began. After the security guard was taken care of the men then went into the store where they approached the cashier/proprietor who was also relieved of his jewellery. He said the men were using top-of-the-line handguns in the course of the two robberies that he described as "clean" since no shots were fired or anyone injured.

Samuels said the store was offered the option of more security officers but said it was not affordable. He added also that it was difficult to get security officers at this time considering the present crime wave in the country. According to him persons were fearful for their lives hence the hesitation to join the service.

Police were immediately called in after the robberies occurred. They arrived in good time to take statements and get the preliminary investigations off the ground as the stores were all back in business by noon.