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Store Owner, Customer Tied Up During Robbery

Robbery Happened At Great Southern Home In Northwest Atlanta

POSTED: 1:56 pm EST November 4, 2009
UPDATED: 6:31 pm EST November 4, 2009

Atlanta Police are looking for two armed robbers who stole some flat-screen televisions from a business and walked right out the front door.

It happened at the Greater Southern Home Recreation store on Chattahoochee Boulevard in Northwest Atlanta. Owner David Piha said it was just after the lunch hour Wednesday when two men whom he assumed were customers entered the store.

“We start talking,” Piha said. “All of the sudden, that’s when he pulls a gun out and says, ‘You know what to do.’ And I looked at him. I said, ‘Are you serious?’”

Piha said the robbers forced him to the floor and tied his hands together. A short time later, a real customer came into the store. The customer, who asked not to be identified, said the robbers put a gun to his back and tied his hands together, too.

The victims said the robbers stole their cell phones and wallets. Piha said one of the robbers got physical when Piha wouldn’t give up his credit card personal identification numbers.

“That’s when he hit me with the gun,” said Piha. “They said don’t do anything stupid. They said, ‘We know where you live.’ They got my wallet, everything."

As the robbery was happening inside, an employee at a business across the street was taking his lunch break outside.

“Right off the bat, I thought, honest to God, this place might be getting robbed,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous.

The man began to doubt himself, though, when he saw how casually the men loaded the flat-screen TVs into the customer’s SUV.

“As it progressed, these two guys were just so nonchalant, so slow about it, I thought to myself, well maybe these two guys work here,” said the man.

After they left, the owner freed himself and the customer.

“They had me tied up with an extension cord, and I was able to get my hands undone. Then I cut him loose,” Piha said.

The armed robbers got away in an older model, light-colored Chevy Cavalier and the beige Chevy Tahoe they stole from the customer.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the Atlanta Police Department.

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