CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are investigating after someone attacked a worker with a knife outside a business in the Dilworth neighborhood.
The man worked at the Zen Massage Center on East Boulevard. He had stepped out of his car before 7 p.m. Wednesday on the back side of the building, which is hidden from the people passing by up front.
He said he never saw the man walking up from behind and didn’t realize he was about to become a victim of an attempted robbery until he felt a knife at his throat.
The victim managed to get away with a couple of cuts. It may take longer to heal from the effect of the attempted robbery.
Mickey Coffino owns the building next door and calls the area “a fantastic neighborhood.”
She said there is rarely a problem in the bustling community. Her parking lot is next to the lot where the workers was attacked.
“I’m absolutely shocked,” she said.
People often walk the neighborhood. There’s a Harris Teeter grocery store and several businesses on the same block.
“(There’s) very little crime around here,” shopper Coleman Hambley said.
In the last six months there have been nine robberies within two miles of the block. There were 48 assaults and four of them were aggravated assaults.
They are not overwhelming numbers, but they are more than many people expected.
"You would think this neighborhood is, that wouldn't even happen in this neighborhood," Hambley said.
The owner of Zen Massage center said he has never had a crime in the 11 years the business has been in Dilworth.
WSOC
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/LH3JSJEF3VBLRJLJQESEAG34AM.png)
