A market vendor is demanding that police pay her $4,500 for confiscating and damaging her stash of avocadoes. Maria Cowo bought 750 avocadoes from her usual supplier up North. Now the trouble started yesterday evening when police held up her supplier and took all the avocadoes she had already paid for. He was just there to deliver her order. An amateur video captures all the commotion. Today I went looking for more answers at the market. We spoke to one eyewitness off camera as well as the supplier's cousin. They all maintain that the avocadoes were locally grown in San Victor, Corozal.
Voice of: Eyewitness
"It was around 6pm in the evening. I was closing my business and I went outside and I saw 2 police officers holding a guy for some avocados. Asked them why they are holding him for. He says [police] because of contraband avocados. So we stood there and I say but those look like local avocado. The police didn't want to listen to anyone. They call someone and they stayed there like an hour. I expected they were waiting for some bargain or something. Then the mobile reach and ask what was going on and that's when they were told that they have some contraband avocados and they put it in the truck. The guy who had the avocado was willing to go in the truck with them because it was his avocado, but then they put 2 other stuff that did not belong to him, so that's when he refuses to get inside of the truck."
Courtney Weatherburne
"What two other things that the police there?"
Voice of: Eyewitness
"I didn't know what that was. So then that's when he refused and the police put him in the car and that's when they rough him up and try put him in the truck brutally. That's when we try to step up and took a video and say you don't have to treat people like that and then the thing is that one of them came with a shotgun and he look like he was ready to pull out that shotgun and shoot anybody who tries to interfere with them. The police officers need to know how to do their job correctly. Respect to gain respect and it was food. It was not drugs, it was nothing bad the guy was doing."
Cousin of victim
"They just took the avocado from the bus and they say that's its illegal and that avocado is the product of Belize."
Courtney Weatherburne
"So your cousin came off from a bus, he had just came out of a bus?"
Cousin of victim
"He came out of the bus, yes."
Courtney Weatherburne
"Where was he coming from?"
Cousin of victim
"From San Victor, Corozal District. With that we want justice, because I don't know what is going on with the police. If they don't believe me, I have the tree at home and I can carry them to see the tree. That's the product of my tree that I have home."
Courtney Weatherburne
"How much would you say you guys lost in terms of cost? Because I know that the police officers they destroyed a lot of the avocados."
Cousin of victim
"We brought like 1,000 avocados and right now we lost like 600."
The supplier has been released from custody. Now Cowo says that she needs police to pay her back for all her damaged avocados. She says when she got them back from police they were all ruined as seen in the video. She says that if police does not pay her money, she will sue. We will keep following this story.
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