Advertisement 87
Advertisement 323
The woman was forced to toss away the box of imported food items because rats had eaten them.
The woman was forced to toss away the box of imported food items because rats had eaten them.
Advertisement 219

A Canouan woman says she wants to know who will compensate her for a box of food items imported from Trinidad that she had to throw because rats bit them.

Ann-Marie Richardson told iWitness News on Thursday that the condition of the food items when she received them on Tuesday suggests that the rat invasion took place while the items were stored over the weekend at the Customs Department in Kingstown.

She said the food items were packed in a cardboard box and shipped from Trinidad last week Thursday, March 16, arriving in Kingstown one day later.

WhatsApp icon
If you wish to receive iWN updates by WhatsApp, please add +1-784-532-4252… Be sure to send us a message when you do. “Notification” and the name you would like us to add you as would suffice…

She said when her boyfriend went to collect the items on Tuesday, some vegetable inside had begun to rot and the Customs officials discarded those.

Richardson said her boyfriend was in a hurry to catch the ferry to the southern Grenadines island and did not inspect the two boxes that he collected, one of which contained mostly laundry items.

Advertisement 271

She said that when she collected the packages in Canouan, she realised rats had eaten many of the food items.

Richardson said she contacted the Customs Department and a staff member there told her that they have an issue with rats that the Ministry of Health is yet to address.

She said the Customs employees told her to burn the box and its contents and not to consume any of the items, even if they did not show any sign of having been eaten by rats.

Richardson said she had sent US$300 to her mother to buy items for her and was yet to calculate the value of the loss.

iWitness News contacted the Customs Department Thursday afternoon, but a staff member in the relevant department said he had not heard about the development.

“That is like fresh news to me,” he further commented and referred us to his supervisor.

The supervisor, however, said that those matters are to be addressed to the Comptroller of Customs & Excise, who was not in office on Thursday.

2 replies on “Rat invasion forces woman to dump imported food items ”

  1. Customs of SVG is a mess in so many ways. They can start by getting rid of the rats of the variety that walk on two legs. The Customs laws are a totally wrong, the Management is and always has been very poor. There is just not really much of anything good about our VERY inefficient Customs Department. It needs to be totally restructured but WE as a culture are too lazy to realize this let alone actually do it.
    To clear an item or items from SVG Customs takes far more time and cost to customer and taxpayer than it does in organized and efficient nations. Getting rid of the four-legged rats is VERY EASY, getting rid or the two-legged rats is also easy, we are just too lazy and incompetent to do so.

  2. I too sent a bix , but from SXM, with only canned good and hygiene products for my husband, about $300 USD as well, and when my brother in law went to collect it, they made him pay, knowing the box was infested and destroyed. Now they say nobody is responsible for refund or damages. I will be definitely make sure the correct measures are taken, because this kind of disregard and carelessness is unacceptable. Let them continue, I will spread the word quicker then how fast they turn us down. Without a second thought. #crapeausmokeyuhpipe

Comments closed.