Bandits burn soon-to-be-wed couple’s home

PLANS to be married this month were postponed after a couple was attacked and robbed by five bandits who burnt down their home, on Friday night, at Reservoir Hill,  Point Fortin. 

Clint Jacob, 31, a chef, and his fiancee, Joanne Beaumont, 25, were terrorised for almost an hour by the bandits  who ordered them to hand over US money. During the robbery,  Jacob was beaten about his body with a cutlass and chopped on his head and buttocks. Eventually the bandits left without the money but took with them the couple’s entertainment centre, television set, video and other items. While the couple was making a report at the Point Fortin Police Station, it is believed that the bandits returned and set the house on fire.

Investigators said they believed that the bandits burnt the house to get rid of any evidence they had left behind. Jacob and Beaumont were taken to the Point Fortin hospital where they were treated and discharged. The couple had been renting the wooden/concrete house since last September. The owner, Ruby Jules, estimated the value of the house to be at $200,000.

Speaking from his mother’s home at Techier Village yesterday, Jacob said he believed the bandits burnt down the house, believing that they (he and Beaumont) were still in it. Jacob told Sunday Newsday that sometime after 11 pm, he and Beaumont were awakened by three masked men, who were standing over his bed. He said two other masked men came in shortly after. Two were armed with a gun and one with a cutlass. Jacob said the bandits kept asking him for US currency but he told them that they did not have any. He said his hands were bound behind his back with pieces of cloth from a torn sheet. Jacob said he was hit on his head with a gun butt and dragged to another room where a sheet was placed over his head.

While he was being interrogated about the money, Jacob said the bandits were beating him on his back and hands with the  cutlass. He was also chopped on his head and buttocks.
Jacob said the bandits proceeded to ransack the house and stole a quantity of electronic items. When the bandits eventually left, Beaumont, whose hands were tied, chewed on the cloth until she was able to free herself. Jacob believed that the bandits gained entry through a vent in the toilet area. Jacob and his girlfriend had planned to move to another place after their wedding this month. “But for now the wedding has been put off until we could go through everything,” Jacob said. Point Fortin police are continuing investigations.