Organiser of downtown carnival Oniel Smith has been left to ponder his next move in the staging of the downtown carnival parade, scheduled for Easter Monday, after thousands of dollars were stolen from his home.

Approximately $600,000, which had been earned from the Sunday staging of a beach carnival at Brooks Pen Beach in Eight Miles, Bull Bay, along with several items from Smith's home, went missing in the wee hours of on Monday morning.

The money obtained from this event was to be used to finance the carnival parade.

"When I took the money to my house shortly after 1 a.m., I left and went back to the beach. I soon discovered that the house had been broken into and ransacked when I returned about 2:30 a.m., after the party. All the money was gone along with Dell laptops, two plasma screen televisions, a Nintendo Wii game console, cameras and shoes. I left the money in a wardrobe in my bedroom," Smith said.

Smith said that after he had left the money and headed back to the beach, he recognised that he and his driver were being followed. He further pointed out that when the driver of the tailing vehicle signaled for them to stop, his driver kept driving, out-speeding the car, which went the opposite direction.

followed

"After I left my house, a car came up behind us from out of nowhere, and was signaling for us to stop, but we didn't stop because we suspected that we were being followed. We didn't put much thought to it because we had already put down the money," he said.

Smith further pointed out that while he was at the party, his driver was followed around by a man unknown to them, which prompted them to switch vehicles.

Interestingly, Smith noted that prior to the staging of Sunday's event, a call was placed to him alerting him that the beach party was going to be robbed, which prompted him to beef up the security at the venue.

With the money still missing and Smith trying to gather his senses, he is hoping that through talking with the sponsors, some who are already aware of the incident, that the carnival parade scheduled for Easter Monday will still come to fruition.

Checks made with the police who are investigating the matter confirmed that a report had been made in relation to the robbery, and a probe has been launched.