Nigel Wilson and Wayne Williams, ninth and eighth-place winners, respectively, in the 2008 Digicel Rising Stars contest, and four other persons, were held up at gunpoint and robbed.

The incident took place at Wilson's barbershop in Church Road, Bog Walk, St Catherine, about 9:40 p.m. on Saturday.

"Three guys walked in masked demanding money, they took cash, rings, jewellery, watches, from all of us and cellphones, and they took my car valued about $800,000, actually my mother and I bought it," Wilson told THE STAR.

Wilson, who also copped third place in the 2008 Tastee Talent Contest, said the robbers took the two cellphones which he won in both contests, adding that the experience was traumatic.

"My two-year-old daughter was sitting in my lap. I am really happy they didn't take my life, they just took the valuables and gone," he said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Wilson attributed many of the crimes committed, especially by young people in Jamaica, to the high level of unemployment in the country. "Most of these youths can't get any jobs, so maybe this is the only solution that they really resort to, robbing and stealing in order to make a living for their own," he said.

He reported the incident to the Bog Walk police who confirmed the report.