Pandemonium broke out outside the More Money Pawnshop and Jewelry Store yesterday as hundreds of customers with their pawn tickets in hand demanded they get their monies for their pieces of gold, which they had pawned for fast cash.
Pounding on the shop's glass windows and doors, hurling obscenities were too much for staff, police and private security personnel to cope.
Backup was called in and by 10.30 am a contingent of heavily-armed officers from the Inter Agency Task Force arrived on the scene.
Host of Crime Watch Ian Alleyne was also on hand attempting to quell the crowd and restore law and order.
He told about 300 pawn ticket holders they were going to be seen by management and assured them of a good settlement.
However, those words from Alleyne seemed to be quickly forgotten as the rowdy crowd grew more impatient and began pushing themselves towards the shop's glass doors.
Several attempts were made by police officers to push them off but that only caused intense confrontation between officers and customers.
One customer, Reynold Hernandez, was jostled by police but was defended by his sister Kay and others. Alleyne intervened, as well, pulling Hernandez away from the officers and again pleaded with the crowd to calm down.
The store opened for business yesterday morning at about 8 am but would only accommodate pawn ticket holders.
From as early as 6 am people were seen gathering outside the Henry Street store waiting patiently for it to open its doors. Initially there was a number system in place but by mid-morning it fell apart as people became rowdy and verbally abusive.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian, director of operations Wayne Griffith explained it was agreed that pawners would be able to get 90 per cent value of their pawn.
"The settlement plan was agreed to $200 per gram. It would take some time to pay out the final settlements because we have a database of 2,500 customers."
Griffith said he believed that by Monday they would start payouts but added that it would be done systematically in alphabetical order.
He added that payments would be made by cheques and people should look out for a public notice which would be published in the print media.
Pawn ticket holder, Reena Marajh, said she pawned over 11 pieces of jewelry for a cash loan geared towards payment of medical bills. After she was dealt with by staff, Marajh of Morvant would only receive $4,038.
"It real sad to know that all my expensive jewelry worth tens of thousands of dollars gone and I only getting back little money. i have been doing business at this shop for the past two years," Marajh said.
Another customer from Cunupia, who did not want her name published for security reasons said she has been pawning jewelry for over 40 years, firstly at another popular jewelry store and estimated her losses to be well over $250,000.
"A lot of sentimental pieces of gold gone. Pieces that my mother had from little girl growing up... good gold. It hard. My husband recently bought new wedding diamond bands for us and I pawned that and now it’s gone. My wedding ring alone cost him $21,000. It real hard."
The shop was robbed over the weekend with the thieves stealing an estimated $15 million in cash and jewelry.