Masked knifeman makes off with shop takings

Dorota Khan, 27, was alone in her Livingston shop when a robber clad in black clothing stormed into the family-run store and threatened her.

The raider shouted abuse at her before pushing her behind the counter and telling her to open the till, before making off with the shop’s takings.

Mrs Khan spoke of her relief that her 15-month-old son Kamreyn was not in the shop when the raid took place around 2.30pm on Monday.

She said: “He came in and shouted ‘give me the f****** money’ and pushed me behind the counter. He used the knife to try to get the till open. It all happened so quickly. He was very aggressive. I was absolutely petrified.”

Mrs Khan added: “If the robbery had taken place 15 minutes earlier Kamreyn, would have been here in the shop with me, but luckily he wasn’t.”

Mrs Khan and her husband Qamrosh took over the business, on Tay Walk in the Craigshill area of Livingston two years ago, but it has been run by the family for 30 years.

Qamrosh, 28, who was in the family home behind the shop when the robbery happened, said he believed the robber, who had a scarf over his face, had been waiting outside the store for other customers to leave.

He said: “One of our regular customers was in the shop, and after she left this guy walked in, dressed all in black. He had this big kitchen knife and he waved it at her.

“She stepped back and he tried to open the till, but he couldn’t. He got Dorota to open it, but then he asked her to remove the cash tray as well, which she said she didn’t know how to do.”

After the robber fled, Mr Khan said, his wife pushed a panic button below the till that alerted police.

He added: “There were police everywhere within minutes, eight cars or something. They searched the local area and knocked on people’s doors. Everyone knows us in the community and everyone was helping the police. We wanted to talk about this because people should be able to run a local business without something like this happening to you.”

A 27-year-old man has been arrested in connection with an alleged robbery on August 15 and is due at Livingston Sheriff court today.

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