Cape Town - Four men, at least one armed, entered the Chai-Yo Thai restaurant in Durban Road in Little Mowbray, pretended to be patrons and then robbed staff and some of the diners.
During Tuesday night’s incident the men made off with an undetermined amount of cash and several cellphones.
Police spokesman Colonel Tembinkosi Kinana confirmed the robbery and said it happened about 9.15pm.
“Four unknown persons entered under the pretext of being potential clients. Once inside, one of the suspects produced a firearm and held up the staff and patrons and robbed them before fleeing on foot,” he said.
The restaurant’s owner, who asked not to be named, said the men were able to enter because their “buzzer door” was not locked at the time.
It was the first robbery at the restaurant.
He said they had a security guard, but they would be meeting neighbours to discuss “what needs to be done”.
Attorney Mike Evans said he was having dinner with his two daughters and their boyfriends when the men walked into the restaurant.
“We didn’t even notice they’d robbed people,” he said. “Then they suddenly started running through the restaurant.” Evans said it was unclear if all of the men were armed, but one had brandished a gun.
He believed the men were on their way out when they tried to snatch his daughter’s handbag.
“And stupidly I tussled to retrieve it and they pointed the gun at me,” Evans said.
After the robbers left, Evans learnt that one of the men had held the manager at gunpoint and taken everything from the till while the others took cellphones and money.
Evans said it happened so fast that he “wouldn’t even be able to give a description”. One woman apparently lost about R5 000 in cash. The robbers did not get anything from his table.
Evans said the restaurant was vulnerable as it had very little security, no panic button and was on a main road with easy access. He said he spoke to a security guard who had seen the men, but was afraid when they “pulled a gun on him”.
Chairman of the Mowbray Community Policing Forum Jonathan Hobday said
unfortunately the road was very accessible and many businesses had been hit in the past, including a bottlestore across the road that had been targeted twice recently.
“They tend to come fairly late when there’s cash,” Hobday said. The worrying thing was that it was usually armed men who came in when the establishment was open to customers.
* Anyone with information can contact Detective Warrant Officer Kleynhans on 021 680 9580, CrimeStop on 08600 10111 or SMS Crimeline 32211.
Cape Times