And while the concern over whether your child is missing out on school is what's worrying households across Belize tonight, in Belize City the story for the New Year so far has been murder.
There have been five Belize District murders since Saturday night. Tonight, we'll have all the stories, but we start in the Yabra area where police recovered a grenade today.
The Gang Suppression Unit was conducting searches in the area of Old Fabers Road, which is in the turf of a well known city gang. The GSU found it in an abandoned lot, in the near vicinity where another grenade had exploded back in 2008.
Fortunately, the cops discovered this one, which was unused, but still very much intact, ready for detonation.
The experts have since determined that it is an M26-A1 hand grenade, and our news team was on the scene when the authorities finally retrieved it. Here's what the Acting Commander of the GSU told us at the location:
Insp. Glenn Caliz - Acting OC, Gang Supression Unit
"Right here, we have a live grenade, military type standard M26-A2 hand grenade. We had conducted some operations in this area over the past hour, where we came upon this grenade. With this, we called in the BDF bomb expert, who will handle this grenade to take it to a safe location, for further investigation, and further destruction."
ACP Chester Williams - OC, Eastern Division South
"I have just been notified by the acting commander of GSU that sometime around 9 a.m. this morning, they discovered a live grenade in the Yabra area. That grenade has been taken into custody by the BDF, and they will be the one to dispose of it."
Micah Goodin - Amandala Press
"Sir, it is a concern for your department that perhaps more grenades are out there?"
ACP Chester Williams
"It is always a concern. We want to be able to collect all of them off the streets. So, whenever we get information of a grenade being removed off the streets, we're very grateful for that."
As you heard, the GSU officers found the grenade in a black plastic bag, which also contained 7 live rounds of 9mm ammunition.
No one was in the area at the time of the discovery, and so the items will be treated as found property. GSU intelligence on these items, however, is that they belong to a member of the South Side Gangsters, who lives in the vicinity.
As we told you this grenade was found in the very same area where another grenade exploded back in November of 2008. Very fortunately, nobody was injured by that one, but it did send shrapnel flying into the homes of nearby residents.
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