Prince Harry's girlfriend robbed at gunpoint

Chelsy Davy: Hour-long ordeal
13 April 2012

Prince Harry's girlfriend Chelsy Davy has been held up at gunpoint and robbed of her personal belongings in a terrifying hour-long ordeal at a wine bar near her home in Cape Town.

She was among a small crowd of late-night drinkers at the trendy Cubana Latino Cafe when five men who had been posing as customers suddenly produced handguns and knives and ordered everyone to get on the floor and hand over their valuables.

Chelsy, 20, was forced to lie face-down on the tiled floor of the kitchen at the back of the premises, along with six other customers and bar staff and waiters.

Two men stood guard over them with guns while their accomplices brandished knives and went from person to person collecting mobile phones, car keys, cash and credit cards.

A source said: "Chelsy was terrified. She's worried about the phone as it has text messages from Harry on it and lots of private numbers. She just hopes the raiders had no idea who she was."

Chelsy later phoned Harry to tell him about her ordeal. He was said to be very concerned but relieved that she was unharmed.

Yesterday Devilliers Nienaber, the duty manager at Cubana, told how Chelsy helped to comfort him after one of the gunmen kicked him repeatedly in the head.

"I just wasn't getting down on the floor quick enough for them," he said. "I got a kicking and one of my bar staff had a knife held at his side throughout.

"Chelsy had been drinking quietly in the bar with a girlfriend, a fellow student. When these guys suddenly got up and threatened us with a gun, she stayed quiet and calm.

"There was no screaming and no crying. I think that's what saved our lives. If Chelsy and her friend had panicked it could have been the end of us. When the guys eventually ran off she came over to see if I was OK. She and the others helped me up and we sat for a while having drinks while the police came.

"Chelsy was worried sick about losing her house keys and her mobile phone. She used our telephone to call her brother Shaun and he came over straightaway to get her."

Chelsy and Shaun share a house in the upmarket suburb of Newlands, just two streets from the Cubana. Both are students at the University of Cape Town, where Chelsy sits her finals later this year for a business degree.

Mr Nienaber said: "Our wine bar is the only local place that opens on a Sunday, and because it's a quiet night we usually close around 11pm.

"Last Sunday it was about 11.20pm when I called last orders. I'd seen Chelsy and her friend chatting and drinking wine for a while. They were dressed very casually in jeans and T-shirts but we all noticed them.

"There were five other customers left - two of them were a middle-aged couple from Ireland who were traumatised by what happened.

"These five guys had come in earlier, dressed smartly in suits, collars and ties and not attracting any attention or looking threatening at all. But just before closing time they sprang out of their seats near the front of the bar and walked fast towards us nearer the back of the premises, two of them holding guns and shouting at us to all get in the kitchen.

"Our bouncers were busy outside and didn't see what was happening. My staff and the customers were absolutely terrified but we all know enough about violent crime to try to keep calm.

"Chelsy was pretty brave. She and her friend did exactly as they were told, with the gang shouting at us to get down and 'go to sleep'.

"They told us to keep our faces pressed to the floor. They didn't want to be identified. But we have them filmed on our surveillance cameras so the police have something to go on.

"Everyone had to put their things on the floor ahead of them without looking up.

"Chelsy and her friend put their handbags out and the men snatched them and went through them, throwing the bags back when they'd taken what they wanted."

Police spokes-man Captain Randall Stoffels said: "The suspects are still free and we are examining the video film to try to identify them.

"The customers had their phones taken and their car keys, but the gang didn't steal any of the cars."

Chelsy will have been relieved not to have lost her silver Mercedes Kompressor, worth about £30,000. She drives herself to university every day and garages the car at home behind electronically operated gates.

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