Philipsburg:--- The bandits that are invading homes and businesses are getting braver by the day as the number of burglaries or house break-ins commtted is increasing daily. On Monday, bandits invaded the home of Chief Commissioner of Police Peter de Witte. De Witte lives in the Oyster Pond area and he confirmed to SMN News that he met his house in a complete mess when he arrived home around 5:30pm on Monday afternoon. Bandits also invaded the home of another person in the same area on Monday.In an invited comment, De Witte said the burglars made a mess of his home as they scattered his belongings and those of his family all over the place. At the time of the interview De Witte said he could not tell exactly what the thieves took out of his home since he had not yet taken an inventory of his belongings. Police he said was at his home processing the scene on Monday evening. De Witte also said no one was at home when the thieves raided his house.
While residents and businesses are constantly complaining about the increase in brutal crimes on the island, somehow the amount of robberies and house break-ins that are committed daily is not being reported. It has been reported that 16 murders were committed for the year 2011 but the amount of robberies and house break-ins is yet to be reported. These burglaries go un-reported by the police department for unknown reasons.
Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos said burglaries are indeed on the rise because he received information from the Police Department stating that there are at least 10 burglaries committed per day on St. Maarten.
Mos finds the amount of burglaries to be alarming, he said right now there is no immediate solution for these crimes since there is a lack of prison space for criminals that commit petty crimes such as house break-ins or burglaries."Burglars would spend like 26 days in a police holding cell after which they are released."
SMN News reported in the past that these bandits target police officers quite often because on more than one occasion they managed to steal the officers' service weapons. Some months ago bandits invaded the home of the CID head Richard York and stole his service revolver. Brigadier Richards lost his service revolver while on the French side sometime ago. All of which went unreported by police. It is not known if the culprits who target and steal the police weapons were ever caught because that too is kept under the proverbial carpet. Police also fail to say if any of the weapons that were stolen from police officers were used in any murders that were committed thus far for the year or prior years.
Several Members of Parliament have expressed concerns on the growing crime rate on St. Maarten especially since there is nothing in place for the younger generation. Jobs they said are taken up by the undocumented or foreigners who recently applied for the Brooks Tower Permit.
