The Toledo Teacher’s Credit Union in Bella vista village suffered a major blow on Thursday of last week when burglars made their way into the institution and made off with 114 thousand dollars in U.S. and Belize currency along with two firearms a pump 12 and a 9mm gun. According to the manager, Leopoldo Romero, the building was secured on Thursday evening and when the security guard came on duty on Friday morning, the building had been broken into.
Surveillance footage from the building shows two men coming to the establishment properly equipped to gain entry into the building and further to the vault. He says that the burglars were armed with a steel cutter, drills and a five ton jack. The thieves cut a hole in the wire perimeter fence of the credit union and then made quick work of prying open the burglar and wooden doors. They then unhinged the vault’s door using a 5 ton jack and made their way in and further break into the credit union’s safe.
All of this was caught on surveillance equipment which caught the two men as they went about the office of the credit union until about 3:30 on Friday morning. While the thieves were inside they were aware that there was surveillance equipment recording and in an effort to try to cover their deed they took a monitor instead of the recording device that documented their crime.
The money which was stolen was to have been used to pay pensioners, social security and employees of Belize Aquaculture Limited on Friday. According to Romero, the credit union has insurance on the building, the contents and cash so they are now looking at recovering the money by this means.
Meanwhile police have taken the video footage for review. They have also lifted fingerprints from the scene and have taken into custody the equipment which the thieves brought with them as the jack was left inside the building and the other pieces of equipment were left outside of the building’s perimeter fence. One person has been detained as officers try to match finger prints from the scene and of the person who was detained.
It is noteworthy that on June 4, 2012 three armed men went into the Credit Union and stole an undisclosed amount of money from the vault after holding up the patrons and employees inside. Shortly after that incident three police officers, a BDF soldier and a taximan were arrested and charged after being found in possession of over 34 thousand dollars in cash believed to be proceeds of the robbery.
