Dalton Laing, Gleaner Writer

Richard Rankine points at gunshots holes in the side of his two-room board house which armed robbers made while robbing him of an undetermined sum of cash. - photos by Dalton Laing

A Georges Plain man is expressing thanks and counting his luck as he and his family escaped unhurt following an early-morning armed robbery at their home.

Richard Rankine, motor vehicle duco man, said that he was in his house with his wife and three sons, one of whom is two months old, at about 3:30 Saturday morning, when he heard kicking sounds on the back door of his two-room board house.

Talking in the backyard

"Me hear talking sounds in the backyard and then me hear 'boom boom', back door kick," he relates.

"It fly open so me get up fast and hold the door and me wife get up and hold it too."

He explained that the men then went to the side and broke the window. One of the men reportedly pointed a gun through the window and Rankine reportedly held on to the gun, but the robber realising his exact location in the house started firing shots, amounting to four in his direction.

He further explained that they pointed the gun, which had a light attached to it, on his two-month-old and demanded the money. "Gimme all a the grocery money, Richie."

More money

Rankine complied by throwing out his wife's shorts which had the day's sale on the instructions of the robbers. The men then demanded more money, saying that more is in the house. Rankine had some cash, including US dollars in a drawer, and he instructed his wife to throw that out too.

Pinned in a corner

The men fired a number of shots at Rankine who was pinned in a corner while his wife and children took cover elsewhere in the tiny house. He explained that it was at the point when they broke a window and shone a light on his two-month-old and aimed a gun at him that he was really concerned.

After robbing and terrorising the Rankine family, the robbers escaped at the back of the property on foot, firing an additional shots as they escaped.

Rankin expressed appreciation to the Savanna-la-Mar police who responded within five minutes of the call. The station is five miles from his house.