St John’s business owner recounts brazen daylight robbery

A businesswoman, who was robbed at gunpoint at about noon, yesterday, said she was more upset than frightened because it seemed like she had worked so hard to support herself and her mother, only to have a young man rob her of more than $1,500.
Jo-Anne Isaac, the owner of Innovative Travel and Tours, said she must now improve the security at the travel agency she operates from her home on Nelson Street to prevent a re-occurrence.
“At first I didn’t realise what was taking place because it is someone who has been in here before, that came in here asking me about flights. It didn’t really hit me until he was wrapping the tape around my hand that it was really happening. I’ve had these security cameras to put up so long … but I’m trying to get the buzz-in system,” she said.
Isaac lamented that people are usually asleep when she is up late at nights and into the pre-dawn hours looking for the best available fares, only to have the perpetrator rob her of her money.
“I have my mom to take care of and that takes up a lot of my time and it was just upsetting to me to know that I work hard, and if it was a day that I hadn’t made my deposit then he would have gotten more,” she said.
The robbery victim said she was sitting at her desk just after midday on Friday when she heard the door open and looked up to see a slimly built young man pointing a gun at her, and then demanded money.
“He asked where was the money, so I took whatever money I had from my drawer in the cash pan and gave it to him. He asked if there was any more I said ‘No’. He asked where is my handbag; it was under my desk on the floor and he asked me to empty it. He searched it and found some additional money,” the robbery victim recounted.
The businesswoman said the bag contained between $1,500 and $2,000, and the masked perpetrator who had the gun pressed against her neck all this time, took it and placed in his pocket.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)