Men who stole from Bridgetown shop jailed for six months

Two men with no fixed place of abode, who stole coconuts and ginger from a shop in Bridgetown, will have secured shelter for the next six months.

Keith Fitzgerald Anderson Batson, 50, and Mzee Oseikazi Natambu Moore, 37, were each given that sentence at Dodds prison for committing the crime between February 12 and 13.

The complainant, Rosann James, secured her establishment No. 2 Suttle Street on the first date, leaving 100 coconuts worth $150 along with $650 worth of ginger inside.

She was informed on the following day that the door to the shop was wide open and when she went to the location, she discovered the merchandise missing, Sergeant Victoria Taitt told the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on Friday.

The two were later apprehended and admitted to the crime.

Batson explained that the door to the shop had been open before he entered.

“I was hungry at the time, that Saturday.

It was around midnight. I apologised for what happened,” he said.

When asked about a homeless shelter on Suttle Street that could have catered to his needs, Batson said: “They wasn’t feeding at the time, it was about 11 o’clock at night.”

He also explained that he “was not thinking at the time and did not want to wake them up”, meaning members of his family.

Moore, meantime, apologised for his actions but stated: “I ain’t have nobody to look out for me because of my lifestyle . . . my gay lifestyle.”

However, Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes pointed out there were several organisations that the men could have approached with their plight.

Quoting the popular Anthony B tune Raid the Barn, the magistrate said, ‘Nobody want to plant the corn, everybody want to raid the barn’, as he said the owners of the coconuts and ginger had worked to get the property and the two men had taken it.

He also pointed out that society had become forgiving over the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and that had been seen in the amount donated to the Salvation Army’s appeal.

Magistrate Weekes told the two men, who are known to the court, that they were looking for “easy targets”.