Marigot:---- The office of opposition leader Alain Richardson was broken into on Sunday morning while the businessman and politician was in church, the incident occurred on Sunday morning Richardson told reporters. The opposition leader who owns an accounting firm in Bougainviller Building said nothing was stolen from his office since the alarm system did not give the theives time to take away anything from the office. ‘The only thing they did was to thumble the drawers looking for valuables". Richardson said.
Richardson said most of the damage was done to the locks and doors of the building which was replaced by the security company the same day. Richardson said he did not feel the attack was politically motivated because if that was the case the intruders would have gove after his computers which has valuable information stored in them. He estimated his loss of about two to three thousand dollars.
Richardson said this is not the first time theives attempted to break in the Bougainville Building but its the first time they ever accessed his office.
Richardson said on numerous occasions he brought to the attention of Prefet Dominique Lacroix the height of crime on St. Martin.
He said everyone in law enforcement knows of the increase in crime especially robberies, he also said his office was broken into at 10:30am which in his opinion showed how desperate the thieves are.
In the meantime, the gendarmes has reported that a pizzeria was robbed in Oyster Pond. The entered the establishment around 11pm Sunday night and stole some $200 and Euros 100 in cash.
Due to the increase in armed robberies the gendarmes reported that they have brought in reinforcements from Guadloupe to help curb the rising crime rate. The gendarmerie disclosed with the additional manpower more patrols will be deployed at night. Efforts made to obtain more information on the re-inforcements proved fututile as both captain and commandant were off yesterday due to a holiday.