Business owner hospitalised after terrifying carjacking

A Townsville business owner has been targeted by criminals twice in one night after his home was broken into and a knife was held at his throat during a carjacking.

Youssef Barbers was broken into late last year. Picture: Supplied.

A Townsville business owner has been threatened with a knife and had a gun pointed at his head in a horrifying attack.

Youssef Ammar was trying to identify the car of a group of attempted home invaders when he was carjacked by a second group of criminals fifteen minutes later.

This is not the first time they’ve been targeted with the owners of Youssef Barbers previously saying crime was getting so bad they wanted to leave the city.

According to Ola Ammar, she was woken in the early hours of the morning, around 3am, by intruders attempting to steal one of the couple’s cars at their house in Douglas.

“They were trying to break in and I saw them and started screaming. They ran off and got into a car, but I couldn’t get the rego, so Youssef left to see if he could maybe spot them and take down their license plate rego,” Ms Ammar said.
“He couldn’t find them, but he ended up at the lights on Nathan Street near the McDonalds.”

The family’s car was left spattered with blood and is being investigated by police.

What started as an attempted break-in got much worse, as Mr Ammar was then accosted by another group of criminals who attempted to carjack him while he was stopped at the lights.

Mr Ammar had his window open and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary until someone from the car behind him approached.

“He told me his door was opened, someone reached in through the window and opened it. They started hitting him and put a knife to his throat.”

Co-owner of Youssef Barbers, Youssef Ammar. Picture: Supplied.

Ms Ammar said her husband then stepped out of the car, but took the key with him, preventing it from starting.

“They couldn’t start the car, and they started getting angry. He had the knife pointed at him and Youssef tried to get the knife off him. He cut his hand very badly.

“The guy started shouting for help from the other car and another man came out and put a gun to his head.”

While Mr Ammar couldn’t tell if the firearm was real or a replica, the whole family was left shaken by the ordeal.

“It was terrifying,” Ms Ammar said.

“They were able to stitch his hand up, but we’re worried now about infection. It was terrible. We’ve been living here for over 20 years and that’s our home. It’s very hard to just pack up and leave.”

Ms Ammar said she was ‘still shaking’ hours after the incident, and had passed out when she saw Youssef’s injury.

“I’ve never seen something like that.”

A police spokesman confirmed that an investigation into the two matters had begun and was ongoing.

Originally published as Business owner hospitalised after terrifying carjacking