Barrackpore couple tied up, robbed

Pensioner Harold Ramnarine,75, and his common-law wife Sundra Watie, 65, were asleep when four men smashed the front door of their home at about 2 am yesterday.

They live at Ramsabad Trace, Barrackpore, and, according to a police report, the masked men used a hacksaw to prise open a lock of the family’s front door. Two of the men were armed with guns and the other two with knives.

The report said Ramnarine and Watie were awoken by the noise to be confronted by the men who demanded they hand over all their money.

Speaking to Sunday Newsday at their home yesterday, a traumatised Ramnarine said he was still in a state of shock.

“I keep getting flashes of what occurred and I am so deeply hurt and shocked but I am also lucky to be alive,” said Ramnarine. “My wife and I were spared because of prayers. They said they were going to kill us before they left, I believed they were really going to kill us.” Ramnarine lives in Canada but had returned to Trinidad only hours before and retired to bed with his wife.

“Would you imagine this is what I came back to?” Ramnarine asked.

“I see myself as a brave man but this place is a scary to live.” Ramnarine said that at about 1.30 am he was awoken by noises coming from the front of his house and the sounds of his dogs barking repeatedly. He said, “It was only within a few seconds these four men barged into our bedroom and demanded that we hand over money.

They pointed the guns to our heads and shouted, ‘We come for both of you today, give us all your money, we will kill you!’ “One of them had his arms around my neck and another one had his hands around my wife’s neck. My wife was crying hysterically, I could do nothing to help her. All I could do was pray.” The burglars then used the duct tape to seal the couple’s mouths and tie their hands and legs together before they forced them to lie on the ground.

The four men then ransacked all the rooms. “After they took all the money I had in my possession, they returned to the bedroom and threatened to rape my wife,” Ramnarine said. “They said they had got what they wanted and now it was their time to have fun with my wife.” He said his eyes were closed and he continued praying. “I knew their was an angel right in the room with us, because the men left suddenly in a haste. Tears also came to my eyes. I think about what happened and I still I am fearful.” Ramnarine said that when the men ran out of the bedroom he could hear the engine start to his green B14 which was parked in the yard of the home. “I knew they had also stolen my car but I just wanted them out and out of our lives,” a traumatised Ramnarine said.

The burglars also escaped with $2,000, two bottles of Scotch Whisky and CAN$1,000. Barrackpore police officers are investigating.