Gang of women terrorise Charlotte Street

THE Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) said yesterday there is a gang of about eight women thieves operating on Charlotte Street and yesterday appealed to the public to be on the lookout for them.

DOMA president Gregory Aboud said this was pointed out to him yesterday by at least four board members and three business owners on Charlotte Street, which was the scene of a near riot on Tuesday. Aboud told Newsday that the women have cellular phones and relay information to each other, regarding their whereabouts and what they are up to. During the melee on Tuesday, a worker at the Accessory Lady Store on Charlotte Street, said one of the women used a cellular phone to make a call and that in a short time, a group came and converged in front of the businessplace. One of the persons who arrived on the scene reportedly had a firearm in his possession, the worker said, but police said they did not have this information.

Aboud added that the gang of women are also going into the stores and threatening workers in advance to be quiet or suffer the consequences. Further, he said, the women also tell employees that they are going to shoplift. They then pick up the merchandise and calmly leave the businessplace. “They are acting in a very boldfaced manner and in a way to cause serious hardships and it is almost like an underworld grouping,” Aboud said. He added that businessowners on Charlotte Street have indicated that this type of banditry involving women have been occurring before Tuesday.

Aboud said that the incidents were never reported before because business owners on Charlotte Street felt that the area was a forgotten one. “Some of their sales clerks have been threatened with knives,” Aboud said.  Accessory Lady manager Denise Gomez said that one of the men who was at the scene Tuesday came to her Wednesday telling her she should not return to work after that same day (Wednesday). She also said that the man, accompanied by two women, kept putting his hand in his pocket, but she formed the opinion that he simply wanted to scare her. Aboud added that the women are also believed to be the same gang that operated at the Maska fete, where a male promoter was stabbed to death.

DOMA held an emergency meeting yesterday during which time the problems were aired.  Aboud asked merchants and tenants of Charlotte Street to fear nothing and should immediately report to the police and DOMA, any threats received and incidents of shop lifting and pickpocketing. The DOMA president also said that a follow-up meeting has been planned to come up with strategies to relieve the situation on Charlotte Street. He added that the matter involving the female gang has been reported to the police, whom he emphatically thanked for the way they handled Tuesday’s situation.