By Newsday

Copyright newsday

THE EDITOR: I was dismayed over claims that when police were contacted about a strange car left in the Cascade area for about two days recently, they failed to respond to check the concerns raised by residents. As it turned out, that car belonged to the kidnapped Caribbean Airlines pilot.

The supposed police claim about them not getting a report about a missing car – and other such excuses – allowed the kidnappers to return to the area two days later to remove the car and drive it to south Trinidad to set it afire.

Now that the kidnapped victim has been rescued, I wonder how he feels about the police’s inaction which has deprived him of his vehicle. This reminds me of late 1990 when I witnessed a robbery along the Diego Martin Highway at Four Roads.

A motorcyclist had just left a bank branch in the Starlite Shopping Centre when, as he stopped at the traffic lights at the highway intersection, his bag was snatched and his motorcycle taken.

The snatcher’s accomplices were in a car nearby and the stolen motorcycle was ridden behind the car, with those in the car looking back constantly, which confirmed to me that they were part of the robbery.

I followed them from a safe distance and observed the cyclist turn into a side street off the Cocorite stretch, abandon the motorcycle and get into the car, which continued into and along Wrightson Road.

Those were the days before cellular phones so I couldn’t call police while following. I got out of my car opposite to the Central Police Station (CPS), ran across the road and into the station to report what I had just witnessed. I gave a description of the car and its registration number.

As an officer was about to radio my information through the system, another one interrupted saying to wait until the Four Roads police sent out a bulletin. I was flabbergasted.

When I got to my office, I called the Four Roads station for confirmation of what I had witnessed and to tell them where the motorcycle was abandoned. The policeman at the other end could not believe his colleagues at CPS could have done what they did.

That car could have entered either South Quay or the Beetham Highway, which would have given police a decent chance of intercepting it on either route, but that was foiled by the silly action of someone in a police station who should have known and done better. Thus, I am not surprised at the police’s non-action to an incident related to the pilot’s kidnapping.

CLYDE ALPHONSO

Port of Spain