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A Penal woman and her two daughters were terrorised by armed criminals who staged a home invasion before daybreak at their home in the early hours of yesterday. One of the bandits choked her 18-year-old daughter and tied the hands of her five-year-old during the ordeal. The intruders, wearing black and armed with firearms, held the family under siege for about 20 minutes while the bandits ransacked the rooms and grabbed their money and possessions. Sherry Dowlat spoke to the Express outside of the Penal Rock Road Health Facility hours after the incident, where she and her family members sought medical attention on Monday. “I always hear about home invasions happening, but this is the first time my family and I had to endure something like this. It was very terrifying. I couldn’t breathe; my body was trembling. My grandmother always told me that what does not happen in a million years will happen in the blink of an eye,” she said. Relating the incident, Dowlat said her husband, a delivery truck driver, had just left their home on Seemungal Branch Trace on Penal Rock Road around 5.20 a.m. when three men stormed their house. “As they held onto me, I screamed out. My 18-year-old daughter came out of her bedroom and another man grabbed her; one hand was on her neck and the other covered her mouth. They said ‘Don’t scream, just tell us where the money and jewels are,’” she recalled. She said one of the suspects placed a gun to her head. The teenage daughter said the suspect choked her and threw her violently on her bed, causing injuries to her neck and abdomen. She said her 15-year-old son who sleeps in a room outside of the house was spared. As the criminals ransacked her room searching for valuables, Dowlat said they demanded the keys to her Toyota Aqua car and she handed them over. “They duct tape our hands, feet and mouth. I told them to take the safe beneath the bed. I begged them to spare our lives,” said the mother. Dowlat said she showed them a metal safe where the family’s jewelry was kept. She said they took a total of TT$2,000 and US$600, the safe with the jewelry, from the rooms in the house. The bandits also ripped out their digital video recorder (DVR) from their security camera system and took it. “They demanded more money, but I told them that was all we had. They kept talking on the phone to someone else who was a ‘lookout’ person, I believe. They put my older daughter and I on the couch while they packed up the car with the stuff,” said the mother. She said her five-year-old daughter came out of the bedroom and they also bound her hands with duct tape, but she was not harmed. When the bandits escaped with the loot and the family’s car, the family members untied each other and contacted the police. Officers of the Penal Police Station and South-Western Division Task Force responded, and found the family’s Toyota Aqua abandoned in Morne Diablo. However, their possessions and cash were not found. Detectives of the Penal CID are continuing investigations.
