By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Tall Pines MP Leslie Miller says he was robbed yesterday of $2,700 when he went shopping at an Oakes Field grocery store.

The money — his employees’ payroll — was left in his parked SUV in a book under a seat, he told The Tribune.

Mr Miller said he believed he was followed and the suspects who were driving a green compact car waited for an opportunity to steal the money.

“They broke into my jeep,” Mr Miller, a former Progressive Liberal Party Cabinet minister, said. “I could have been dead if I confronted them.

“What happened, I went to the bank this morning, CIBC Madeira Street and my jeep was parked across the street at Modernistic and when I came out, I came out with a book in my hand, and I had the payroll in the book.

“So, when I came out of the bank, I saw this green Note almost in the front of my car and I say ‘what the hell, the guy don’t want to let me out.’ I was going to confront them first to say ‘ya know my brother, ya in the front of me ya know’ but one mind say, ‘you done get rob twice with a gun to your head, leave them people alone’ and I left.”

Mr Miller said he left the Madeira Street area and went to the food store in Oakes Field.

“I went on to Centreville and I went through Toote Shop Corner and through Deveaux Street. I went into Xtra Value opposite University of The Bahamas and within five minutes the guy said, ‘Someone who driving the silver jeep, it just was broken into.’

“So, I said it can’t be me, so I went outside and sure enough it was my jeep.”

He said the thieves broke one of his car’s windows and took the money that was pushed “halfway under the seat.”

“It’s amazing, you know. I am just thinking about it now. I bought a soup right in the little plaza there before I went into the store. So they must have watched me go in there for the soup. I put the soup in the car and went into the store and that’s when they break in and took the money and that’s all they took by the way.

“But there isn’t anything you could do about now. Thank God I am alive.”

Mr Miller is no stranger to this sort of crime.

“They pull gun on me twice, you know. You forget when we were building Mario’s they robbed me of $28,000 and one time I went into Sunburst late at night and the fellow put a gun to my head. So, I just look in the obituary just now and my picture wasn’t there and I smiled.

“Thank God I’m alive,” Mr Miller said.