JEDDAH, 1 January 2003 — Four gunmen robbed a call cabin on Sultan ibn Salman Street at Al-Nuzha in Jeddah on Monday. The gunmen entered the cabin about 2 p.m. when the cabin was full of customers. The four kept coming back and forth checking the place every 10 minutes. Khaled Al-Ghamdi, who works at the cabin, felt suspicious about the men but did not bother at the time as the place was crowded with customers.
He asked one of them what he wanted. The man said he was waiting for a phone booth to be available to make a call. There were two or three booths actually available at the time. Khaled knew there was something amiss as he noticed that the men were all nationals. Saudis generally do not visit call cabins. Besides, he asked himself, where was the need of four men to make a single call?
The four disappeared for 20 minutes, and when he started closing the cabin at 3 p.m. they pounced on him, pushed him back inside the cabin and drew two guns on his face demanding money and valuables.
They emptied the place of its cash collection of the day — SR1,000 — and stole his mobile phone before making good their escape in a Toyota Corolla.
Police, who arrived on the scene later, took fingerprints. They were still to make any arrests.
The owner of the cabin is said to be accusing the employee of stagemanaging the drama for stealing money. According to him in many similar incidents it is often the employees who are the culprits.
The daylight robbery was the latest in a series of crimes reported in Jeddah in recent days. Call cabin workers, who are easy target for criminals, are scared to stay alone in the cabin at night. Even if they do, they stay in twos when working late at night. The workers are demanding proper security for them to work at night.
