Published On:Tuesday, August 25, 2009

By PAUL G TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

pturnquest@tribunemedia.net

PANDEMONIUM broke out at RM Bailey High School and RIU Hotel yesterday after some made off with furniture and other household items that were destined for the country's under-privileged.

Hundreds of persons queued outside of the hotel and the school yesterday waiting for their chance to get a pick at desks, television sets, mattresses and other household items that were given to the poor in a generous gesture by the operators of RIU Hotel in a Social Services co-lead operation.

However, some unscrupulous delivery men reportedly "hijacked" a number of trucks loaded with these items and took them to other locations where they were either sold or handed out to family members and friends.

The "left over" products which made their way to RM Bailey for distribution were reported of such a low caliber that many persons at the scene described them as either "damaged, or unusable" items.

At RM Bailey people queued in the blistering heat for hours to get an opportunity to see some of the items, only to be frustrated by the report that persons allegedly "connected" with Social Service workers were being allowed to get the "first pick."

According to an eyewitness, who phoned The Tribune, the crowd broke down the school's fence and overran the police who were called to keep the situation under control.

As the caller explained, the situation quickly turned into a "free-for-all frenzy" where persons were making off with anything they could lay their hands on.

Speaking with The Tribune from the RIU Hotel yesterday, Minister of Social Services Loretta Butler-Turner said that she was very disturbed by yesterday's events.

And as it pertains to those persons contracted by the Ministry to deliver these items to the school, Mrs Butler-Turner said that the police have had some success already in tracking down a number of persons who had cordoned off these hotel supplies.

"I am very disappointed but I do realize now why hotels do not do this anymore because it becomes very difficult to manage. When Atlantis changes their stuff now, they just get rid of it. They just send it to the dump.

"I thought this was a good gesture on behalf of RIU as a corporate citizen.

"Our department thought it was a good gesture considering the economic challenges that everyone is having, but the lack of patience, the lack of people cooperating, and just a few people who decided that they want to take advantage of a situation as you will always have, places us in this situation where we're at," she said.

With this distribution exercise beginning on Friday of last week, Mrs Butler-Turner said that the Ministry will be winding down this exercise today.

"I am right now at this moment, insuring that former employees of RIU who are asking me if they can get some of this stuff, I have given them a number system and I am ensuring that they get a few things.

"But the distribution for the general public has been at RM Bailey and we haven't sent anymore stuff there since about 5.30 this afternoon because it just became a little out of hand and uncontrollable. And we have been using the Police Force -- but it is just that bad," she said.