of Better Hope

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A man is in police custody and the police are hot on the heels of his accomplices for cutting and removing a 75-metre stretch of telephone cable at Vryheid’s Lust, East Coast Demerara.Shot: Rosaline LloydShortly after 05:00 hours yesterday, a resident alerted the police to the cable thieves. Police response was prompt. One of the men was harnessed to a cart on which the thieves had stacked the lengths of cut cables, property of Guyana Telephone and Telegraph company (GT&T).The police presence sent the men running through yards and jumping drains and fences in neighbouring Better Hope.There was gunfire as the police pursued them.  Delon Boucher, of Plaisance Squatting Area, who happened to be pulling the cart was not lucky to escape. But the others, among them a notorious criminal, Grego Persaud, of Better Hope, escaped.There was one fallout from the police activity. A woman, Rosaline Lloyd, called Shelly, got hit by a stray bullet.She said that after she heard the gunshots she got up because she knew that her son was an early riser and might have been outside.She said that she crouched low and entered the kitchen when she felt a blow to her head. A bullet intended for one of the thieves had penetrated the wall of her home and glanced off her head.Investigations revealed that the bullet penetrated two outhouses and two walls in her home before striking her in the head.It turned out that one of the fleeing thieves had enough time to change his pants in a nearby yard. Another left a trail of mud behind and a cutlass.The severed cablesPeople who seem to know the cable thieves said that one of the men escaped from the police recently. He is wanted for larceny of sheep, housebreaking and even sexual assault. They said that this is the second time in recent times that the thieves have severed lengths of cable in the area.Nabbed suspect Delon BoucherChief Executive Officer of GT&T, Yog Mahadeo, said that the cost of the destruction is far reaching. Millions of dollars would be spent on replacing the cut cable. In addition, the resources spent on replacing the cut cable could have been spent on expanding the telephone service, he said.There is the loss of revenue since consumers are now out of service, he added.