A foreign businessman has confirmed to GRENADA TODAY that he did brandish a gun at a St. Andrew's woman over the Christmas holiday period.
Cafe resident, Catherine Vernice Clarke told this newspaper that a business operator in the south of the island pulled a gun at her on December 27 with a threat to blow out her brains.
A senior police officer attached to the South St. George Police Station in Morne Rouge, St. George's has confirmed that they are investigating a report made to them by the 65-year old woman of threats made to her life.
The incident arose as a result of Clarke trying to replace some faulty furniture which she purchased from a furniture factory on the Maurice Bishop Highway in St. George's.
Clarke said she bought two pairs of veranda chairs from the factory in November 2007 but decided to put them out just before the Christmas holidays. "As soon as I put out the chairs and I sat down, the chairs just opened out," she told GRENADA TODAY. According to her, she paid $950.00 cash for the chairs, and $100.00 to transport them to her home.
Clarke who is a shop keeper said that when she contacted the owner/manager of the factory about the problems she had with the chairs, he invited her to return with them which she did on December 27.
"When I went back there he told me he will fix the chair. I said I don't want that chair, I will take the one-seater, because this one is joined and where it is joined it is opening out," she said.
Clarke claimed that the factory owner who is a Lebanonese scolded his worker in her presence for doing a bad job on the chair, but that he (the worker) retorted by saying: "The woman was too fat." The upset shop-keeper said she was then invited by the businessman to enter the factory and choose what she wanted as a replacement.
She said that after making her choice and having received the help of the factory employee to place the chairs onto the truck the owner/manager then said that the chairs are not leaving his premises without extra payment.
Clarke said after first being told that the one-seater costs $250.00, and the two-seater $500.00, the owner/manager decided to charge her $290.00 for the one-seater.
The elderly woman said she told the business owner that she had no more money to pay for the chair, and threatened to report the matter to the police to solve the problem.
"He (the owner/manager) just drew back from me, and he shoved his hands in his pocket and he took out the gun and said, ŒI'll blow you off' ", she said.
According to the shop keeper, the driver of the truck immediately rushed to her assistance by blocking the gun with his hands and shouting: "Don't shoot." Clarke said the operator of the furniture factory then told her that she is lucky the driver saved her otherwise he would have blown her brains off.
She described the gun as being black in colour.The woman said that due to the frightening experience she endured, she had no choice but to leave the building with the damaged chair.
"I am going all out to get my rights in Grenada. People are just doing things in Grenada and just getting off. I want to know what are my rights here in Grenada or what could be done and what cannot be done," she remarked.
When contacted the factory owner said that he merely pulled out his gun, showed it to the truck driver and informed them that they would not be allowed to leave the premises without paying him additional funds for the chair.
The non-national businessman indicated that he did this in order to send a clear message to the woman and the truck driver.He said the police intimated to the woman that the matter is not one for their attention but that she needed to consult a lawyer on the situation.
