Uneasy feelings from an overnight robbery victim. The search continues for two men, who held up a convenience store late Tuesday night. It happened at Rayon's Market, at 8th Avenue and South University Drive. Police say a store clerk was held up at knife point and the robbers took an undisclosed amount of money.
Today the shop owner and her family talked with Valley News Live about what happened and how the event changes how they run their business.
For the past 17 years, Lamia Ali has raised her seven kids in South Fargo. About a year and a half ago, she decided it was time to get out of the house and try something new. Her daughter Jenna Ali explains, "when she thought about opening the business we had 100% faith in her. We knew she could do it cause she was such a hard worker."
But Lamia Ali does work long and late hours. 10:30 in the morning to midnight nearly seven days a week to take care of her family and to keep the doors open. She says Tuesday night was slow until two men came in with their faces covered. Her daughter got a phone call from her mom shortly after the ordeal, "there's two of them and they were holding knives and she said they were forcing (her) to open the cashier and take the money out. And she was like, I had no other choice but to give them the money."
After the robbers got the money they took off headed north, ditched their knives, and in that one act alone it has Ali reevaluating business hours maybe even closing the shop down. She does like the area still though, " I opened business over here because I like Fargo, it's really safe. So this is the first time it happened to me and I don't know why. I think I'm not going to stay anymore till midnight."
Her son Burhan Ali says they'll likely have to get more security cameras, but still can't comprehend how someone could go to such lengths for some cash. "It's only a convenience store so there's not gonna be that much money. So to think about harming somebody with knives and stuff it's not very smart. But people are unpredictable you never know what they're going to do." Says Burhan Ali.
What the family is going to do here is up in the air too. Business is slow, and this robbery didn't help. But in any case they're hoping for justice, and continued safety. Burhan is just glad his mom is safe, "that all doesn't matter it's about safety and health. As long as their ok everything else will be fine."
We talked with investigators and although there is surveillance video, they have little to go on as far as a description. They did say the two men were white, around five feet seven inches tall. They were wearing bandanas and hoodies. They took off north of the market around 11:15 Tuesday night. If you saw anything, call Fargo Police.
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