Sheffield shop owner sells up after knife raider threatens pregnant store assistant

Cameras from police reality TV show 999: What’s Your Emergency, captured the aftermath of the terrifying attack which took place in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic last March.

Viewers of the Channel 4 show, which shows the incidents South Yorkshire Police have to deal with on a day to day basis, watched as the masked raider walked into the Nisa Local store in Catcliffe and brandished a kitchen knife at the frightened assistant.

He then forced her to the till, before ripping it off the counter and fleeing with its contents.

The shop’s former owner, named only as Mandeep, who had run the store since 2017, told the cameras: “My business is my livelihood. I can’t have someone coming in and helping themselves. There needs to be more support.”

“The Government needs to look at why people are doing it. No one should have to deal with crime.”

The programme showed how SYP dealt with incidents in the early days of the Covid-19 crisis last year, with officers PCs Kirsty Smith and Liam Woodward dispatched to the incident on Treeton Lane.

At the end of the programme, it was revealed that police have been unable to trace the knife robber and that Mandeep has since sold up the shop.

It was also revealed that the shop assistant had given birth to her baby.