Five armed robbers tied up a salon owner and four others before looting the salon in under 20 minutes.
Eddie Wiid, owner of Kreations in Kenmare, told the News of the dramatic armed robbery and hijacking that took place at 6.45pm in Shannon Road yesterday, 30 July.
The last client had just paid her bill when suddenly five robbers, each armed with a gun, stormed in and demanded the crew to get down on the ground.
“Down, don’t do anything.”
The paranoid robbers immediately asked who pressed the alarm and dragged the owner, a client and two others to the kitchen where they tied their hands and legs with cable ties.
One of the robbers became violent and pushed the nail technician to the ground while tying him up.
The robbers asked for the keys to the Audi parked in the parking lot, which no-one could provide.
“You are lying, we saw one of you driving in here with the Audi,” said the one robber.
The robbers then started grabbing all their hostages’ jewellery, cellphones, tablets and also took salon equipment like hairdryers, GHD straighteners and other expensive products.
They then discovered the newly purchased generator and removed the owner’s belt from his pants to help load the generator onto the bakkie which belonged to the client.
Within 20 minutes the robbers stole approximately R300 000 worth of goods, a bakkie and R6 500 cash and pressed the panic button before fleeing the scene.
Wiid managed to snap the cable ties and grabbed a knife and started freeing the others.
EPR security was on the scene within minutes followed by members of the Community Policing Forum (CPF).
“Please do not harm my girls,” was the thought that was running through his mind at the time, Wiid said.
“When he said you must ‘sleep’, I honestly thought we were going to die.”
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