Beware at malls

I feel compelled to alert the public to the lax security in most of our shopping malls, because the wife of a good friend, who contested the last general elections for Congress of the People, was almost kidnapped and robbed in daylight, last Saturday. The incident occurred at a popular shopping mall. 

She was about to exit the mall at around 5.30 pm when she was accosted by a boldfaced bandit, who locked her neck in a hold that made it difficult to know if he was hugging her, play-fighting with, or harming her. She started gasping for breath and tried to claw at his eyes. He was demanding that she give up the keys to her vehicle and take him to it to go for a ride.

Brazen bandit

Most people passed by, minding their own business, thinking she was “acting up” in public, embarrassing herself. One guy stopped to inquire if she was OK and the bandit told him that the victim was his girlfriend and that he should mind his own business. The poor girl motioned that all was not well and cuffed the bandit who was then forced to release the girl. A short while later, the bandit calmly walked up behind the same victim inside the mall as she was trying to call for help on her cellphone.

The petrified girl started running and the bandit pursued her inside the mall in front of hundreds of shoppers on a Saturday afternoon. He started telling people “stop my girlfriend! Stop her!” By divine intervention, a police officer was coming up the steps and the girl ran straight into him and just started crying uncontrollably and pointing at the bandit. The officer gave chase (not knowing why), and with the help of a another guy, managed to arrest the bandit.

He appeared before a magistrate in the San Fernando Magistrates' Court and as it turned out, he is a seasoned criminal, who has several pending criminal cases, but was out on bail. The victim is disoriented and traumatised. It could just as easily have been you. CCTV cameras should be installed in public places including shopping malls. Mall-owners should be mindful of the safety and security of customers. Car theft, pick pockets and roving gangs of bandits who terrorise customers should not be ignored.

Youth loiter

They profit from high rental income, but the cheapest security guards are often used, more for cosmetic purposes to lull people into a false sense of security than any real deterrent. Police suspect the security guards as being and acting in cahoots with car thieves operating at malls.

Last month, a mother visited my office to seek advice. Her daughter broke school and went to “lime” in the mall. She was raped in the toilet by three youths who taped her mouth and forced her into a toilet cubicle. One woman entered and used the adjacent cubicle and was none the wiser. The mall’s management offered to pay her daughter’s medical bills on the condition that she not speak to the media. Compensation in the sum of $10,000 was paid.

Gangs of youth loiter and monitor potential victims as they park their cars. They use cellphones to text and call other gang members who are stationed at various strategic points in the mall to see what a woman is buying—this ensures that she is worthy of being robbed or kidnapped. It is a sophisticated and well-oiled machinery. Inadequate mall security being paid minimum wage would not risk their lives to assist innocent customers who are in danger. It is easier to turn a blind eye.

Perhaps the time has come for Parliament to enact laws to compel popular commercial business enterprises to upgrade their security systems by installing CCTV cameras that are monitored by the mall’s security department. As I read about our preparations for the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the installation of scores of security cameras on light poles along the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway and the Priority Bus Route, from the Piarco International Airport to the capital city of Port-of-Spain, for the safety of visiting dignitaries, I can’t help but wonder why this couldn’t be done a long time ago for the benefit of the average John and Jane.

By Anand Ramlogan