News Briefs

Flow service resumes in St Ann; three held for cable theft

FLOW Jamaica has reported that services disrupted by vandals have been restored to its more than 5,000 St Ann customers.

It comes as the police confirm the arrest on Sunday of three persons in a separate case.

Customers, including hotels and financial institutions in Ocho Rios, St Ann’s Bay, Runaway Bay, Discovery Bay, and its environs, had lost much of their broadband, video, and fixed-voice services.

Fibre-optic cables near the St Mary border were chopped early Saturday morning.

Communications Director at FLOW, Kayon Mitchell, says operations have now returned to normal.

“Services started to come up from yesterday (Saturday) in the afternoon, and they completed the repair of the cables at 2 a.m. on Sunday,” she said.

FLOW says the latest acts of vandalism will cost it approximately $1.5 million, in addition to lost revenue.

The company said there were 590 acts of vandalism last year, with the figure for 2022 now at 250.

And just as the workers were completing repairs to the damaged fibre-optic cables, thieves were allegedly preying on the company’s property elsewhere in St Ann.

Commander for the St Ann police, Senior Superintendent Dwight Powell, told The Gleaner that two men and a woman were arrested after they were held in possession of FLOW’s copper cables.

They allegedly stole the cables from the company’s underground facilities around 3 a.m.

Man with hose scares off credit union robbers

Armed robbers aborted their mission at the People’s Cooperative Credit Union branch in Maroon Town, St James, on Friday after a man brandished a hose that was apparently mistaken for a gun.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Eron Samuels said investigators are following several leads in the case.

Parts of the incident were caught on camera.

In one video, which runs for two minutes and depicts the front entrance of the credit union, the men are seen pulling up at the side of the building in a white motor car.

Moments later, a female security guard on duty is accosted and overpowered by one of the men, while four accomplices brandishing what appeared to be guns entered the premises.

But shortly after, the alleged robbers fled the scene after a man appeared, pointing an item in their direction.

Another video, shot inside the credit union building and lasting 48 seconds, shows the robbers in the lobby banging on the teller windows with their firearms.

Samuels said the police are analysing the videos for clues.

“We have interviewed the persons who were working at the credit union, and we can say that as to the individual who was seen brandishing an item, he had in his hand the hose of a fire extinguisher,” Samuels said.

“It seems the robbers ... never recognised that the item was not a firearm,” said the senior policeman.

He also confirmed that while the robbers did not get any money from the credit union, the security guard’s Apple iPhone was stolen.