GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A mother says she was held captive with her children inside a nail salon. Now, an employee there is facing felony charges.
The mother told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson that there was a disagreement over the bill.
She says she had some questions about an extra $20, and before she knew it her son was being grabbed and the door was locked.
“I don’t understand how somebody just touches somebody’s kid or just locks somebody in a business,” said the mother, Selena Stevenson.
Police said they had to get involved and told the employee that it’s not OK to lock people inside against their will.
Video she shot on her phone shows officers arresting an employee at Modern Nail Bar on Buford Drive.
Stevenson says it started Sunday afternoon when her 1-year-old daughter got fussy.
“I wasn’t just letting her cry, but I was holding her, holding her, and I could tell that the lady was getting aggravated,” she said.
Then she says the employee added an extra $20 to her bill.
“She said, ‘Well, I was sitting here with you for two hours and if you don’t like my price, you can leave,’” Stevenson said.
As she gathered her kids to go, she says 41-year-old Nancy Nguyen grabbed her 8-year-old son by the door.
“She grabs him by, I can say by his left arm from the back and kind of pulled him back into the shop and locked the door,” Stevenson said.
Locked inside the store with her scared son and daughter, and with other customers, the mother called 911.
Police reviewed the video and charged Nguyen with felony false imprisonment.
“It is a little traumatizing too, because now he doesn’t want to go anywhere,” the mother said.
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She paid her $178 bill and said she always intended to.
Johnson went to the salon to speak with the owner but was told that someone would call me back later.
“Even if it was the case where somebody didn’t want to pay for his service, that’s still not something right to do. Even though that was never the case,” Stevenson said.
She says she was inside with the door locked for anywhere between five to 10 minutes before they were let out and waited for police.
Nguyen was arrested and booked into jail. She was able to post a bond for her release later in the day.
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