The Hale home of Real Housewives of Cheshire star Ampika Pickston has been targeted by armed robbers.
Three men wearing balaclavas and armed with an axe, knife and hammer forced their way into the mother-of-one’s home between 9pm and 9.15pm on Thursday August 20th.
Pickston – who owns the Opium hair and beauty salon in Hale Barns – wasn’t in at the time, but housekeeper Lesley Khan suffered a “traumatic” 15-minute ordeal during which she was dragged around the house as the gang demanded to know where the safe was.
Khan said: “They said ‘if you don’t scream you will be alright’ but I couldn’t make a sound.
“I feared for my life. I thought ‘this is it, my number is up.’ It was traumatic. I’m thinking myself lucky that I didn’t get injured. We are both devastated by this ordeal.
“What would they think if it was their mother or grandmother that suffered something like this?” she added in the MEN.
Pickston was at MediaCityUK in Salford at the time of the burglary, attending a screening for the first episode of the second series of ITV show The Real Housewives of Cheshire, in which she stars.
Ampika Pickston broke the news on Twitter yesterday:
Three masked men with weapons broke into my home Thursday evening. It’s sad the world we live in. #justice will be done #matter of time ⌚
— Ampika Pickston (@AmpikaPickston1) August 23, 2015
She said: “It is an extremely sad reflection on a minority of today’s society. These people should be brought to justice. People should never have to live in fear. They burst into an area where my housekeeper was sitting waiting for me to come home. They dragged her upstairs and threatened her with weapons.”
She added that a “substantial reward” would be offered to anyone providing information leading to a conviction.
Anyone with information should phone police on 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
