Bar operator fed-up with police

A city business woman says she is growing frustrated with criminals who continue to target her lower Newgate Street bar.
Valdez “Mary” Vargao said she secured Mary’s Bar on Monday just before midnight, only to return Monday morning to see the locks broken, the pools table damaged, and a number of alcoholic beverages and cash stolen.
“I am just fed up. The people dem breaking my place and the police no ge me no satisfaction for the people that break in my place. I work hard, and people just come and take my things and I get no justice. But, I am not going to take it anymore,” an upset Vargao told OBSERVER media.
The entrepreneur said she opened the bar in 1994, and since then she has been the victim of many break-ins and even had her property stolen during regular operating hours.
She also said that a patron stole her phone, earlier this year, while she was selling candy, and even though she pointed out the alleged perpetrator, no one was prosecuted.
Lamenting the frequent break-ins, the bar operator recalled that she has suffered three in one month.
“I cannot make any money and I am working hard. They say Spanish people are criminals, but, I don’t trouble people and I work very hard. I am very upset. I am not a joke, I pay licence and I pay plenty tax on the island, I don’t live here for free. I have so many locks, my business has more locks than the prison. Criminals in the jail don’t have this much locks,” she said.
She is calling on the police to take her reports of crime seriously and investigate them.
Yesterday, OBSERVER media reached out to the Police Public Relations Officer, Inspector Frankie Thomas who indicated that lawmen take reports of crime seriously and reported matters are investigated.
Thomas stated that it is unfortunate that the businesswoman felt her matter would fall by the wayside. He added that reports of crimes are channelled through a specific process.
“All reports are treated with priority. It matters not who made the report or what is the nature of report. We want to empathise with the reporter…it is a matter that I will take a step further and look into, but, I just want to reassure her and the public that all reports are taken seriously, and an investigation launched,” Thomas said.