A lawyer is warning Bahamians to be on the alert this holiday season after her 69-year-old mother's gold necklace was snatched off as she sat in her car reading a newspaper with the windows down. Darnell Dorsette said it was shortly before 8am on Wednesday, when she stopped for breakfast at ‘Shut Up and East’ restaurant on Fleming Street West, that the robbery happened. “I would order a $2 or $3 breakfast there almost every morning,” she said. “I was walking away from the pick-up counter area and a young man was approaching.
“He looked at me in a way like he had a purpose, walking really fast towards the window where you order but he didn’t say anything to me so I just continued on my way to my parents’ vehicle which was parked right in the front of the restaurant.” It was when she approached the car and climbed into the passenger seat that she noticed her mother was in the middle of a scuffle with another young man. “This young man was tussling with my mother. She was reading a newspaper and she hit his hand away. At first I thought - because you know how Bahamians go, we hail people and we touch them and whatever - I thought that’s what he was doing, just hailing,” Ms Dorsette said.
“Then when I saw he was determined to touch her neck and she was holding onto his hands to get him away from her neck, I realised what was happening was a robbery.” It was in shock, she said, that she started to hit the robbers hand in an effort to get him to release his hold on her mother’s gold necklace. “I didn’t have anything else and I didn’t want to throw the tea on him because it was hot tea and I didn’t want to get it on my mother,” she said. “So I just punched his hands and he let go, but by that time the chain had already popped off.”
The thief ran off in the direction of Hospital Lane closely followed by the other young man she had spotted earlier. “He was looking at my silver jewellery but I guess silver wasn’t good enough for him - he needed gold,” she said of the other boy. The gold chain had sentimental value, she said, but she was glad that her mother was unhurt, although she was shaken. “That chain they took has a lot of value, but not in terms of money, I gave her that chain for Mother’s Day almost 20 years ago when I first started working and she never took it off her neck,” Ms Dorsette said.
“These things are very valuable and there are memories, but at least she has her life.” She said she wants to warn Bahamians to be careful as criminals will take advantage of any opportunity. “We need to be careful just going for breakfast. A $2 breakfast or $3 breakfast could cause you to lose your life,” she said. “I just hope Bahamians are very, very careful especially during this up-coming season. Don’t keep your windows down, that’s all I can tell you.” She described the robber as medium height, slim build, dark complexion and wearing a white t-shirt and brown short pants. The other young man, whom she believes might have been his accomplice, was wearing a black t-shirt and navy blue pants. She said both looked to be school-aged, between the ages of 15 and 17.
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