A fun night out with friends turned into a nightmare for a local comedian after a Claremont restaurant they were visiting was robbed by armed skelms on Monday.
Eugene Mathews says the three men walked into Oblivion Bar and Kitchen just before 7.30pm.
He was “astonished” to see how calmly the robbers operated.
“Myself and five friends were sitting at the table and we had just put in our food orders and were having a few drinks,” he explains.
“Everything was going normal until the manager walked up to us and asked if we could please be quiet.
“I thought, ‘why are they telling us to keep quiet’, but then I saw one of the men with a pistol in his hand.”
Eugene says he was shocked, and looking around the ground floor of the two-storey restaurant, he saw another two men, armed with pistols, walking around between patrons.
“The manager then told us that the guys are just going to take the money and leave, so we must stay calm.
“One of the guys then reached over the bar and took money from the register while the others went to each of the tables and took stuff like phones, laptops and they frisked some people to empty their wallets.
“When they came to our table they took phones, including my own. It was all done quietly with nobody shouting or anything like that.”
After the ordeal, cops arrived and Eugene was full of praise for how Oblivion staff handled the potentially deadly situation.
“They were so professional and were just amazingly calm throughout everything.
“Nobody panicked and everybody was just kept safe.
“Afterwards I still stayed and finished my meal and my drink which they paid for.”
The owner of Oblivion, who did not want to be named, confirmed that the incident happened just before 7.30pm and that nobody was harmed.
“It was almost like it was not a robbery at all, they just came in, took a few stuff from the people and then they just walked out,” the owner says.
Police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk confirmed that an undisclosed amount of money was taken from the restaurant along with patrons’ belongings.
He said no arrests have been made.