Drama broke out at the Croisee in San Juan around mid-morning yesterday as bandits struck in broad daylight, making off with a woman’s gold chain as she made her way across the promenade right before three Members of Parliament.

The women’s loud shouts disrupted a function that was being held on the promenade by the Ministry of Works and Transport to apprise the public of new traffic initiatives which are to be implemented to ease traffic congestion from Bagatelle Road/Saddle Road, San Juan, to the Eastern Main Road.

The brazen-face bandits were seemingly not the least bit deterred by the presence of police officers watching over the function or by the presence of MPs Joseph Ross, Ni Leung Hypolite and Anthony Roberts who all sat at the head table looking on in surprise at what was taking place.

’Look a man in a orange jersey just grab me gold chain and run off,’ the women shouted, alerting the police officers standing on the promenade to her plight. ’Look, allyuh go after him,’ she demanded.

All attention turned to the unknown woman, who in attempting to pursue the bandit took off her shoes and continued to shout, pointing in the direction in which the bandit had apparently taken off. The function was immediately disrupted by the commotion and came to a standstill for close to 15 minutes. The TV camera men also dismounted their cameras to put the spotlight on the crime that had just occurred right under the nose of the MPs who seemed a bit embarrassed by the situation.

Residents and other passersby who were alerted by the women’s cries also began shouting at the police to arrest the bandits.

Police officers patrolling the promenade in turn pursued the bandits and managed to capture at least one of the culprits, who was jeered by members of the public.

One eyewitness to the incident, Glenroy Mondaizie, said the other man dressed an orange jersey , ’who snatched the chain’ appeared to have escaped on foot but said he was happy that at least one of them was caught.

The victim declined to be interviewed by the media. Residents pointedly told Ross, the Barataria/San Juan MP, yesterday that such brazen face robberies were a regular occurrence on the promenade and said they were glad he was on hand to witness the incident. ’This is nothing new you know, people always snatching your things here on the Promenade,’ Margaret Stanley said, adding ’just last week a man snatch a woman bag right here and they doing it during the peak hours. This is a regular thing.’ El Socorro resident, Barrat Singh, also asked Ross to provide a increased police presence on the El Socorro taxi stand and other areas to deal with the increase in crime.

In responding to questions from the media on the crime situation in the area, Ross said that he was aware of the crime problem and this is why he met with the residents up to last week in Barataria to discuss initiatives to deal with the problem. He said the issue of increased police patrol on the streets ’and in particular in this area’ was also discussed. He said he was already beginning to see the results as police officers on foot patrol were able to respond quickly apprehending one the culprits.

Ross, who was also quick to put the focus back to the new traffic plans that was unveiled for the area, said that the plan was also in line ’with the whole plan for increased security in the area.’