More success in finding stolen items – CoP

Commissioner of Police, Michael Matthews has said that with help from external security personnel his team has successfully retrieved thousands of dollars worth of items that were looted following Hurricane Irma.

“We have been, again, using the advantage of having additional officers to be executing a number of search warrants in the last few weeks. We certainly have retrieved a range of items from jewellery to items such as phones, televisions, and generators,” said Matthews.

“So, we’ve had quite a bit of success over the recent weeks in terms of recapturing stolen property and seeking to return them to the rightful owners.”

When questioned by BVI News Online about the value of the items retrieved, the Commissioner said the value ranges in the thousands.

“I would be lying to you if I said I could give an accurate assessment, but it would not be an exaggeration to say we’ve retrieved thousands of dollars’ worth of property since the hurricane. Not hundreds of thousands, but thousands of dollars.”

Public Praised

Commissioner Matthews is also praising members of the public whom he said heeded the call to assist officers with investigation to catch persons who were seen looting.

“They [public] did so magnificently and we were given a huge amount of photographs and video footage to look at and that helped us to identify potential criminals and potential defendants and resulted in search warrants.”

Several persons are now awaiting their day in court to answer to charges relating to looting.