A shop owner and customer ended up in a desperate struggle with a robber who targeted a family jewellers in Nottingham city centre.
A man walked into J. Herbert Jewellers, opposite Poundland on Wheeler Gate, at around 9.40am on Wednesday and tried to snatch two gold chains.
But shop owner David Heath said he and a customer grabbed hold of the man – who only got away by punching one of them.
Mr Heath said: “I was with the customer when another potential customer came in, he was being served by my wife and grabbed the two gold chains from her and rushed to the door.
“Myself and the customer tried to prevent him from leaving and we were partially successful, but then he punched the customer and managed to get away.
“We called the police straight away and they arrived and told us this isn’t the first incident of this kind, there have been several over the past week.
“A bookies has been targeted plus three or four other jewellers.”
The man is described as white, around six feet tall, of stocky build and wearing a beanie hat.
He is around 40 to 50 years old, with no front teeth, and wearing a black or dark jacket with a hood. He also had a tattoo on his hand.
A Notts Police spokesman appealed for anyone who saw anything to come forward.
The robber is believed to have run off in the direction of the Broadmarsh centre after the incident.
Mr Heath added: “Apparently there were a lot of police around at that time but he managed to avoid them.
“He was wearing a parka style jacket with a hooded jacket underneath so maybe he swapped them.
“You are aware this sort of thing can happen in this trade but we’ve only had one other incident in twenty years of being here.
“We have CCTV and work a system whereby the full pad of jewellery isn’t brought out for the customer.
“My wife was in the process of showing him just the two gold chains.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Notts Police on 101 quoting incident number 178 of November 23.
