BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Star Chinese Restaurant on West Independence Square Street was robbed of over EC$2 000 in cash and cellular phone cards at about 7:55 p.m. on Thursday, February 10, 2011.
Manager of the restaurant Weixin Zheng said a masked man entered the restaurant, pointed a gun at him and his employees and demanded money from them.
Zheng said only he and his employees were in the restaurant at the time having dinner.
“He said, ‘I want the lot. I want the money…get the money out’,” Zheng told SKNVibes.
The restaurant manager said the robber was dressed in a gray shirt, blue jeans and a gray cotton mask over his head and face with two small eyelets.
Zheng said that the man pointed the gun at them and placed a black plastic on the counter as he demanded the money.
He explained that the man robbed his employees of three cellular phones, took EC$1 000 in cash from the restaurant and the same amount in phone cards.
He further explained that the cards were from LIME and Digicel but early yesterday morning he had called both telecommunications service providers to have them deactivated.
Zheng said no one was harmed, and after the robber fled the scene he notified the police and they are currently investigating.
He however noted that images of the robber were captured on a surveillance camera. This media house was allowed to view the rewound tape which showed a man entering the restaurant with a silver gun in his right hand with movements similar to those seen in movies.
He moved quickly and confidently back and forth in the restaurant for about eight to10 minutes, and it seemed that he knew exactly where the phone cards were located behind the counter.
The manager said he has been operating a business in the Federation for over 11 years and “I heard of others being robbed before but I had never experienced it…I was scared”.
Zheng explained that during those 11 years, he had operated a restaurant in Nevis called Excellent Fast Food and the one in St. Kitts, Star Chinese Restaurant, was established in September 2010.
Zheng said he is contemplating on closing the establishment earlier than the normal time and would put a security lock on the door. This lock, he explained, would be electronically controlled so that they would be able to see who wants to enter and, if he chooses not to, they would be buzzed.
