As power went down due to the approach of Hurricane Frances, crime went up, leaving businesses in the capital to pay the price. <\/P><\/p>\n
Not a hefty price but a price indeed. <\/P><\/p>\n
Police reported a string of looting and break-ins during the period of Thursday to Saturday with some seven service stations around the island being hit. <\/P><\/p>\n
Proprietors and employees returning to work after the all clear signal was given, were met in some instances with smashed glass, ransacked goods and damage to other property. <\/P><\/p>\n
Vanika Cooper, Assistant Manager at Shell West Bay Street although she did not give an estimated amount of loss she told the Guardian on Monday that there was a sizeable amount of damage from looting. <\/P><\/p>\n
“They kicked the door and broke locks to get in the back to the two store rooms; pry opened the cash registers and took the safe out of the wall,” she said. <\/P><\/p>\n
She said four doors in total were damaged. <\/P><\/p>\n
Cooper said she could not accurately state what items were looted due to the store being bare from shoppers scrambling to prepare for Frances. <\/P><\/p>\n
A representative at Shell Baillou Hill Road and Robinson Roads said repairs were amounted to approximately $470. <\/P><\/p>\n
“They entered the building from the southern side and broke in the glass to enter the building,” he said. <\/P><\/p>\n
“The cost for replacement to the glass is $300,” he said. <\/P><\/p>\n
The representative said looters took namely cigars, tire repair apparatus and some can air-fresheners. <\/P><\/p>\n
The total amount of pilfered goods is approximately $170. <\/P><\/p>\n
“This is regular to be expected during the hurricane season when you usually have these unscrupulous people but no money or valuable items were in the building,” he said. <\/P><\/p>\n
Other stations also reported damage to doors and pilfered items, but chose to remain off the record. <\/P><\/p>\n
Chief Superintendent Hulan Hanna, police public relations officer said it was unfortunate that some Bahamians chose to behave in a lawless manner but added, “Most Bahamians conducted themselves well.” <\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Hanna said individuals committing looting could face up to two years imprisonment if charged in a Magistrate Court. <\/P><\/p>\n
He added however that the respective magistrate could refer the matter to the Supreme Court and if the individual is found guilty could face a more rigid penalty. <\/P><\/p>\n
LaKeisha McSweeney, The Nassau Guardian<\/B><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chief Superintendent Hulan Hanna, police public relations officer said individuals committing looting could face up to two years imprisonment if charged in a Magistrate Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}