The removal of steel doors, window bars and other materials on unfinished buildings is a new spree of stealing in less populated communities where people are constructing houses without private security.
It is becoming an increasing technique for roving criminals to break into people’s properties. Residents of Breakthrough Community in Louisiana Township, Montserrado County, were on Palm Sunday astonished to the arrest of a strange man in possession of hammock and screwdriver. The man who identified himself as Prince Smith, according to eyewitnesses, was seen removing the hitches on the iron door at the back of an uncompleted house.
Passersby from a nearby community called Powell Town said Smith was caught attempting to steal in their area barely a week before the incident.
The community security intelligence swiftly brought in the Director of the Kapao Security of Liberia, Henry Roberts, who recognized Prince as a notorious criminal with a ‘case file’ at the Zone 7, Police Depot 1, in Caldwell where he was taken on handcuff.
The unidentified man was caught on the scene stealing in the community when he was apprehended by the caretaker of the property, who viewed his mood as clandestine when he was dismantling the installed iron door on the unfinished building.
His statements, when questioned about handling the construction tools, were conflicting. He first said he was the construction engineer who went to view the project; but later diverted saying he moved to the back of the house to toilet and saw the hammock and screwdriver lying on the floor. He sometimes wears a reflective jacket to cajole daily contractors with the impression that he is a supervisor sent to inspect the work and warehouse in some situations, a young man from neighboring Powell Town narrated.
“I met the tools lying before the door when I came from the toilet and I was concerned and decided to check who placed them there. Just within time two men saw me and came rushing and held me asking what I was doing around. They are the ones who caught me and called the community people and calling me a rogue but I am not,” Prince claimed.
Amid the crowd of community people, the burglar that could not be easily identified by residents of the community admitted that he lives in Logan Town and had gone walking around in search of job-(who wants work) in the simple Liberian English. Some angry community dwellers were impatient and ready for mob violence but they were suddenly calmed when the community leadership contacted the nearest security officer who responded to the scene without delay.
Upon his arrival, Kapao Kapao senior officer Henry Roberts openly identified Prince Smith as a dishonorable criminal whose reputation is on police record for committing crimes of such nature and had him handcuffed immediately.
Prince did not hesitate admitting to the commission of crime because of his recognition by the officer. He pleaded guilty to the crime but said he was facing difficult times to provide for his girlfriend that is why he decided to carry out the act of stealing.
“Smith is a notorious criminal; he was arrested by me once for stealing cartons of tiles from somebody’s house. He took it as far as Logan Town Broad Street and sold it to one Fula man. We arrested and confiscated it and jailed the man along with the guy and he paid for the stolen property that’s how he Smith got freed from jail, people’s properties are at risk,” Roberts noted.
Officer Roberts said he was called by one of the citizens of the community that a criminal was caught and he thought it was a different person. But to his surprise, it was not a strange individual upon seeing Smith surfacing as far as Louisiana Township doing his business as usual.
He said most of the times when there are criminal charges against people like Prince, their family members usually go and bill them out and to some extent they can reach a compromise with the property owners to pay for the stolen property.
The private security crime fighter said it is disheartening for rogues to take away people’s hard earned properties and therefore recommends that notorious criminals like Prince Smith should often be taken to South Beach at the Monrovia Central Prison for time indefinite because they are problem to the safety of the society. The culprit was accompanied by the owner of the property to the Zone’s Depot for detention.