Businessman kidnapped at Santa Cruz

SANTA Cruz businessman Anslem Choo Woon Chee was kidnapped by men who also fired shots at his home at Sand Bank Avenue, Sam Boucaud, Santa Cruz, on Wednesday night.

Up to late yesterday, however, the kidnappers who have snatched and held the 42-year-old father of two had not called relatives with a ransom demand. Woon Chee is the proprietor of Archie’s Supermarket, Cantaro Village. While no ransom demand has as yet been made police said they are treating the incident as a kidnapping and believe that the kidnappers are trying to wear the family down before they make the call. Police also are speculating that Woon Chee was snatched because he was a witness to a robbery and shooting incident at his supermarket earlier this year, when a security guard was shot and robbed of his firearm. Police reports are that around 8.10 pm Woon Chee had just entered the yard of his home in his blue four-door van when an armed man stopped the vehicle and attempted to pull him out. Police said Woon Chee tried to drive away, but that the man held on to the van’s door and tried to pull the businessman out. As a consequence, the van crashed and police said the assailant snatched Woon Chee and placed him in a waiting Nissan Primera silver grey vehicle, in which there were three other occupants.  Before leaving, police said gunshots were fired at the businessman’s sprawling home.

A neighbour contacted the Emergency-999, who then contacted officers of the Santa Cruz Police Station and made a report. A party of officers headed by Insp Dave Hillaire and including Cpl Baird, PC Jones and others from the North Eastern Division visited the scene and conducted investigations. Police sources said road blocks were set for the vehicle in the Maracas and Maraval areas, but  the silver grey car was not found. Eyewitnesses could not give a correct number plate. The Anti Kidnapping Squad (AKS), whose head is Sr Supt Gilbert Reyes, was later contacted and an investigation subsequently launched. Yesterday, AKS officers led by ASP Henry Millington spent most of the day trying to ensure the businessman’s safe return and possible arrests.  Based on certain information, police said several homes were searched, but these proved futile. At Woon Chee’s home yesterday, a woman who identified herself as his sister-in-law, told Newsday that they had heard nothing from the kidnappers.