Deputy Leader of the PUP Julius Espat is expected to make his response to the budget tomorrow. His turn on the floor is always anticipated because of his combative style. He's already become well known for his confrontations with the Speaker of the House - and his sparring with members of the UDP. But he'll have to burn the midnight oil if he wants to be ready for tomorrow's debate session, and worse than that, he may have to show up with a handwritten speech. And all that's because his laptop computer and his speech were stolen from his home on Seashore Drive on Sunday morning.
Police say that Espat's home at the corner Independence Avenue and Seashore Drive was broken into around 1:00 am on Sunday - which is across the street from Mark King's residence. Espat today told us that only two things were stolen:..
Hon. Julius Espat, Cayo South Area Rep
"Well I was working late, preparing my speech and I forgot to put on the alarm, went to sleep and my wife alerted me that there was something upstairs in the house; the dog alerted us. And so I took out my weapon and tried to find out what was happening. And we didn't find anything, so we put on the alarm and went back to sleep. In the morning, we got up and I wanted to practice my speech and I asked my wife, where did she put the speech and she says she didn't touch it. And then we realized that the two laptop computers that I was working on last night and the speech miraculously disappeared."
"I eventually found where they came from; it was a window that didn't have any protection. So I went on the roof to find where it was and I alerted the police and then we had to do what we needed to do to shut down the computers. We had to contact Apple Computer, we had to change all our passwords; we did what we had to do. But nothing else was stolen; there was some money around, there was other things around of value, but it seems like they only came with one intent so."
Jules Vasquez
"Plain talk: do you think it was politically motivated?"
Hon. Julius Espat, Cayo South Area Rep
"I am a politician and so I assumed the worst and if you only take the speech that I just wrote about maybe an hour ago and if you took the computer that had that document and nothing else - I will assume the worst."
Jules Vasquez
"Are you concern that forces hostile to you may be in possession of your speech?"
Hon. Julius Espat, Cayo South Area Rep
"Well, Minister lives in front, so that's the first person that hurts my heart. When I look across the window and I see who lives in front of me - you think all kinds of things."
Jules Vasquez
"Why would anyone want to steal your speech? They are no state secrets."
Hon. Julius Espat, Cayo South Area Rep
"It was stolen; I didn't say that they wanted to steal it. I am stating a fact and you can spin it in your direction - that's fine."
When we contacted the Honorable Mark King by text today, he said he had no comment and didn't know of the burglary.
Police say that two computers were stolen: a Lenovo Yoga Laptop and an Apple Mac Book. They report that a glass louver was removed from the kitchen ceiling.
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