Email

Print

Earlier we told you about this afternoon’s armed robbery at the warehouse for Miami Store on Euphrates Avenue which was caught on camera. But yesterday when two armed men robbed the Animal Medical Center on Lancaster Street there was no camera rolling. It occurred around 4:30. The men went into the clinic, closed the door, and then robbed the receptionist and 6 customers who were inside at the time. But perhaps the best or worse part of the story is the cover the robbers used to enter the clinic – they took a puppy with them.

Dr. Michael Deshield, Belize Animal Medical Center
“They brought in the little dog and just propped it on the desk here and immediately then proceeded to go around the reception area and the other guy had a gun and told everybody to go on the ground and don’t look up, nobody was supposed to look up, just lie on the ground and the other guy started rummaging the cash till that we have here. Then they closed the door, one guy was at the door and the other one was behind the reception area, and the guy behind the reception area proceeded to collect wallets and things from some of the clients that were here and it all happened very very fast and then after that was done, they went out but then one of them came back in very quickly and grabbed the puppy, the little dog, and took the dog with them. It was very unusual.”

Keith Swift,
Any reason why they would target an animal clinic?

Dr. Michael Deshield,
“I don’t know. We don’t deal with a lot of money here and I mean we don’t keep a lot of computers or anything like that here so I guess they are desperate and it is just showing you what it has come to.

What is really frustrating to myself is the fact that we had clients here and then they robbed them and I don’t know how much money they had in their purse and the cell phones and things like that. So it is very unfortunate because that now puts us in the position that we have to see how we do business because normally we just take people in as walk-ins, we don’t really keep appointments but now we’ll have to do that, we’ll have to lock the door and basically it will be like we are in a prison but we really have to protect our clients and our staff.”

Keith Swift,
So for pet owners, what will be the process now?

Dr. Michael Deshield,
“We the vast majority of the people we know so we don’t have problems with those people calling in or coming in because we know them but the ordinary guy on the street who we’ve been serving and helping, it makes it a little bit more difficult now for them to just come in with their problems with their dogs or even advice that we normally give because we’re going to be suspicious now and it is a sad sad state that we’re in.”

And so to repeat, you will no longer be able to just drop in at the Animal Medical Center – you will need to make an appointment. The Animal Medical Center was robbed in a similar fashion in December and police have still not made any arrests.