In the recent months, we've been telling you all about the troubles that the Government of Belize, particularly the Ministry of Health and NICH, have been having where thieves stole a total of 6 Government vehicles. They are all Toyota Hilux pickups, and only one has been recovered so far.
Well tonight, we have a story of the 7th Hilux pick-up being stolen from the Ministry of Health's parking lot in Belmopan City. It is a 2014 hold Toyota Hilux and it was stolen last night form the ministry of health parking lot in Belmopan.
This time, however, the Ministry was ready. All their Hilux's have been outfitted with GPS tracking devices and tonight it has proved instrumental in locating the stolen pickup - and, guess, what, it's right in Melchor. The better news is that the tracking device can also be used to remotely disable the ignition, so that the truck cannot start - and that has been done.
Today, Kim Bautista, the Chief of Operations at the Ministry of Health's Vector Control Program, told us that Benque Viejo the law enforcement authorities are working to send it back to Belize. He starts the narration by telling us how it happened in the first place:
Kim Bautista, Chief of Operations - Vector Control Program
"Somewhere after 4 this morning, personnel from the ministry was alerted of an incident whereby 3 assailants apparently held up the security guard and basically made off with one of our 2014 Toyota Hilux along with security guard apparently being kidnapped. What happened since the last vehicle from the ministry was stolen, almost a year now, we had increase security measures in terms of reorganizing the security at the car park and we had installed surveillance cameras and we had also installed GPS tracking devices on all our vehicles. So the security footage shows 3 assailants basically holding up the security guard at gun point. The vehicle was taken from the compound at 2:05am this morning and thereafter we track the vehicle making its way through the Bullet Tree area across to the Guatemala side of the border in Melchor de Mencos. Since then the vehicle has been stationary at a yard in Melchor de Mencos since 3:53am. Thereafter we made contact with the company that manages the tracking system for us and we were able to disable that vehicle remotely. We've been working with the local police and the police counterparts over in Melchor de Mencos in order to secure the vehicle. Since then we have located the vehicle. Last reports back to us was that the vehicle was under security, in terms of surveillance, they had the vehicle at the yard and they were guarding it, basically waiting for the paper work in order to bring across back the vehicle."
The gold 2014 Hilux pickup has an estimated value $70,000 Belize, and that's duty free, since it is a government vehicle.
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