At any minute, I could have been dead

THE EDITOR: My name is Peter Garcia and I live in Arima. On Monday December 8, 2003 at about 10.45 pm while plying my car (a dark grey Honda Integra) for hire along the Malabar/Arima route, one woman and three men boarded my car at the Arima Market for Malabar. The men appeared to be in their early to mid-twenties. The woman requested to be dropped off at Malabar Branch Road. After dropping off the woman, I attempted to turn around my car to proceed into the Malabar Housing area when one of the passengers in the back seat placed a gun to my neck and told me to get out of the car and get into the back seat.

Before I could say anything, I was dragged out of the front seat and placed into the back seat and made to lie down. My hands were tied behind my back and a tee shirt placed over my head. They then took control of the car and headed out of Arima. It appeared that they were not familiar with the area, because at one instance they got lost and asked me where they were. I replied that I did not know since I could not see outside. The passenger who was in the back seat with me who was holding the gun removed the tee shirt from my head and pulled me up to see outside. There I recognised that they had taken Olton Road and had crossed the Priority Bus Route and were headed into Samaroo Village. They wanted to get to the Churchill Roosevelt Highway. I told them that they had to follow the road to O’meara Road. He then pulled me back into the lying position and covered my head once more. After driving for about twelve minutes or so at a very fast rate, the car stopped and reversed into a side road. I was then made to get out of the car, and was pushed into some tall bushes and made to lie on my stomach where they proceeded to take my belt to bind my feet together, which was then tied to my bound hands behind my back.

After this was done, one of the men ordered the one with the gun to shoot me, to which he replied that they only wanted the car to carry out a job. They then said that they were late, so they all got into the car and drove off. Immediately, I started to free myself and used my concealed cellphone to call 999 for assistance. I could not recognise the area I was in at the moment, so I had to walk/run for about a quarter to half mile looking for a land mark to inform the Police where I can be located. (It turned out that I was taken to the Caroni Savannah Road between the cremation site and the highway.) Thankfully, they were at my assistance in about 15 minutes after the call. I was taken to the Caroni Police station where I gave a statement. I don’t think I will ever forget the feeling inside me knowing that any minute I would be a dead man and no one would find me for a few days. I had just celebrated my birthday on Thursday, and my wife is out of the country. I hope that something can be done in the very near future to stop these criminals from roaming the streets, taking away the lives and livelihood of citizens in this country.

PETER GARCIA
Arima