Quarry owner knocked down during hijacking

A Santa Cruz quarry owner was knocked unconscious by a passing car while trying to stop two men from hijacking his car.

At around 7.3pm on Tuesday, Kirk Bartholomew, 49,  owner of Bartholomew’s Quarry of Socconosco Village, Santa Cruz was standing beside his car at 135 Eastern Main Road, Tacarigua, speaking to a friend when two armed men came up and ordered him to hand over the keys to the car. The Santa Cruz resident obeyed, even when ordered to lie on the ground. As the car, a white Corolla,  valued at $45,000 was being driven away, Bartholemew reached for his licensed firearm in an attempt to stop the fleeing bandits. He however  accidentally stepped in the path of an oncoming vehicle, a  car  driven by Andy DeLeon. Police who were in the vicinity responded and contacted the Emergency Health Services (EHS) ambulance which took the injured man to the Arima district hospital from where he was transferred to the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. He is now a patient there in Ward 21.