Cops play Santa to rescued girl, 2By Nalinee Seelal Saturday, December 26 2009
Seven police officers who rescued a two-year-old girl hours after she was snatched from her Maraval home last Sunday played Santa Claus and took the girl gifts and other goodies.
The officers, who are all attached to the recently formed Police 250 initiative and are all based in the Central Division, together with the Maraval police, took time off from their busy crime-fighting schedule and played Santa Claus to two-year-old Teja Pierre, who almost never left the safe arms of her mother at the Maraval home, yesterday.
Teja who celebrated her second birthday on December 8, was snatched at gunpoint by a man who demanded cash from her mother Mary Pierre.
Last Sunday at around midday the screaming child was taken to a shack at Jigger Hill, Maraval, and placed on a mattress by her kidnapper who then padlocked the shack and left the screaming child. Her frantic mother alerted the Maraval police and the entire community at Saddle Road, Maraval, formed themselves into little groups and combed all bushy areas with the hope of finding the girl.
A gardener, who lives close to the shack, was alerted to the whimpering of the child, who kept calling out “Mummy, mummy”.
The gardener paid no attention to the child and made his way to the Main Road where he awaited transport to take him to Maracas. While sitting on a bridge along the Saddle Road, he was met by a frantic man who asked him if he had seen a man running in the area with a child.
The gardener told the man that only minutes before he heard a child crying in a shack.
The man used his cell phone and alerted police.
At the same time seven officers from the 250 initiative, who had gone to the St James Barracks to refuel their vehicle, received a report on their wireless set about a baby being kidnapped in the Maraval area.
The seven officers, WPCs Ronella Alleyne, Raquel Smith, Lorraine Leopold, Kizzy Henry-Rigault, PCs Hakim Bullen, Sean Rosal and Lennon Augustine, all responded to the report and made contact with the gardener who led them to the shack where baby Teja lay asleep on a dirty mattress.
When she was placed in the arms of PC Bullen, the child cried out “I want my mummy, the man gone.” PC Bullen and the other officers took turns in reassuring the child that she was safe and will be taken to her mummy.
It was shortly after 2 pm, last Sunday, that a relieved Pierre was reunited with her daughter.
After Teja was rescued, Pierre wept openly and gave praise to the Almighty for sending the officers who rescued her youngest child.
The mother of three, accompanied by police officers, took baby Teja to a doctor where she was medically examined and given a clean bill of health.
Yesterday, Teja sat in the gallery of her Saddle Road Maraval home and played in a swimming pool bought for her by an uncle.
Her mother told Newsday that Christmas would never have been the same if her child was not safe and back home.
She said that she did not have time to purchase Christmas gifts for baby Teja but said none of that mattered since her greatest gift was having her daughter safely returned to her. Minutes after being interviewed by Newsday, a police vehicle with seven police officers arrived at the home of Pierre and like Santa Claus they all came with bags bearing gifts.
Teja who recognised the officers called some of the officers “Aunty” and screamed in delight when she was presented with dolls and other gifts.
WPC Raquel Smith, one of the seven officers who rescued the little girl, told Newsday that assisting in the rescue of baby Teja was one of her greatest achievements and she felt proud, not only of herself, but of the work of her colleagues who trekked deep into the hills of Maraval, anxious to find Teja.
She said, “Rescuing Teja is something we will never forget, and when the Commissioner of Police spoke about police partnering with the public this was put into action when the gardener led us to the shack where Teja was found. When we rescued Teja it was the greatest feeling we got as police officers because saving the life of an innocent child is like service to God.”
The seven officers cuddled Teja and played games with her before they left yesterday.
Pierre expressed thanks to the officers for their show of love to her daughter, adding she was pleased to see the softer side of the police.
She said that when the officers rescued her daughter she saw how emotionally charged they were and yesterday she again saw the same emotions when the officers presented her daughter with gifts. Pierre said since the incident she is afraid to leave her child alone and is calling on the police to find the man who abducted her child last Sunday. She is also appealing for assistance in the form of counselling for Teja who continues to display signs that she is still traumatised by her abduction.
Despite the agony she was enforced to endure for close to two hours last Sunday, Pierre again added that it was divine intervention which led to her daughter being rescued.
She said she has not stopped praying or giving thanks for the miracle which has changed her life forever and which has given her more faith in God.
