Army officer, female friend robbed

A soldier and a female friend were robbed in Arima while they were liming in the soldier's vehicle on September 24 at about 1.30 am.

Police said the SUV was parked along Green Street when two bandits approached and held up the couple. One of the intruders was armed.

The 44-year-old woman arrived at the Arima police station around 1.45 am to report the incident. She said that while she and the soldier were in his white Honda Vezel SUV, the assailants confronted them.

The armed suspect instructed her to get out of the vehicle and she complied.

She said the men got into the SUV and drove off with the soldier. Inside the SUV, she told police, was her handbag which contained $450 and an $800 Nokia Lite cellphone.

Later in the day, at about 1.05 pm, the soldier contacted Arima police to provide additional details. He said that at 1 am, he was parked on a dead-end street with a woman whom he picked up and was liming with, when two bandits confronted them.

The soldier said the bandits forced him to lie down in the back seat and covered his head with a cloth. However, on discovering he was a soldier, the bandits got out of the SUV and ran off.

After his lucky escape, police said, the soldier drove to his girlfriend's home in Chaguanas where he spent the rest of the morning before going to work.

The soldier made arrangements with police to have officers of the Western Division's Crime Scene Investigation Unit process his SUV for evidence. Investigations are ongoing.