Local

Charlotte business owner zip-tied, robbed in beauty shop

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte business owner said masked men rushed into her shop, tied her up and robbed her.

The robbery happened around 4:30 p.m. on Small Business Saturday at The Beaute Mark on Bellhaven Boulevard.

"He had the gun pointed at me," the woman, who did not want to be identified, said.

Surveillance video shows a man enter the shop with a full mask followed by a second man wearing a mask and a hood pulled over his head.

"I said, ‘Don't shoot me. I'm going to give you everything I've got,’" she said.

She gave them cash from the register. Then, she said they tied a zip tie around her wrists and made her get in the bathroom. She said the men blocked the door with chairs.

The shop owner said the robbers dumped her purse out and stole her phone, her laptop and her gun.

"Had I had my gun close to me, I would've shot them. And I wouldn't have had any feelings of remorse," she told Eyewitness News anchor Liz Foster.

After about 10 minutes, she heard the robbers leave and called 911. She said police did not call crime scene technicians and that she has been trying to give them a copy of the video for evidence, but she said as of Tuesday afternoon, detectives had not returned her repeated calls.

"I'm mad at the response from (the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department) because I don't feel like they're doing anything. So, am I safe to even have a business open?" she said.

The owner of the beauty supply store told Channel 9 she has never had any problems in her four years of business until Saturday. With the armed suspects still on the loose, she said she has not felt safe opening back up.

Channel 9 asked police if investigators think the robbers could be connected to any other crimes. An officer responded stating that's part of the investigation and they could not comment.

The business owner has been staying with family since the robbery but said when she stopped by her house Monday, her wallet that was stolen was on her porch.

She doesn't know if one of the robbers returned it, or if a good Samaritan found it and brought it to her.

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