By Petulia Clarke, Staff ReporterA PETTY thief is being a nuisance to residential communities in sections of Mandeville, Manchester, and the police have been unable to catch him so far, as most times they cannot locate the victims' houses.
According to Jean Anderson, vice-president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and resident at Battersea in the town, she woke up last Friday morning to find a bulky youngster standing by her bed staring, and after clobbering him and calling the police, the lawmen got lost trying to find her home, although she has been there for over 40 years.
Superintendent of Police for Manchester, George Quallo, said that he didn't know what to make of the situation and that the problem could have been compounded by the fact that there were at least three houses in the same area bearing the same number as Mrs. Anderson's.
Mrs. Anderson, a sister of Opposition Leader Edward Seaga, said, however, that she gave the police specific directions, and waited for hours while friends of hers scouted around the neighbourhood trying to locate the missing policemen.
She said that early last Friday morning, she awoke to the "strange smelling" man beside her bed armed with a flashlight looking down at her sleeping. He had cut open a grille that secured her window, "done something" to the dogs to stop them barking and helped himself to her husband's wallet. She said that when she awoke he told her that she should go with him, or he would kill her husband. She said that she subsequently took a nearby lamp and clobbered him on the head, after which he ran to another area in the house and she called the police.
She said that upon calling neighbours, she got at least 10 telephone calls from other neighbours who had been the thief's target. He had apparently been terrorising the neighbourhood for over two years and most of her neighbours had the same problem, that the police could not locate their houses because the developments had occurred without simultaneous action on the part of the body that is responsible for updating the maps.
Supt. Quallo said that the Manchester Parish Council was responsible.
The Gleaner was unable to get a response from the Manchester Parish Council yesterday on the map issue.
Manchester Parish Councillors have been calling on the Municipal Services Commission to provide a planning technologist who would be responsible for providing maps indicating drainage, utilities and communications systems for the parish.
