A knife wielding mum wearing tights over her head tried to rob a Co-op and a Chinese takeaway.
Kayleigh Doughty, 29, of Wrexham , made a taxi wait for her while she ran to the Hungry Inn takeaway on Prince Charles Road, Caia Park, where she brandished the knife at staff member Fengxin Chen before shouting "f***ing open the till and give me the money".
CCTV footage showed Miss Chen's family members coming out of the kitchen to challenge Doughty, who covered her face with black tights.
She left and ran around the corner to the Co-operative store where Wendy Shone and Roberts Jones were working their shift, on March 19 last year Mold Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Anthony Williams said Doughty held the knife above her head and shouted at them "where's the till, give me the f***ing money".
He added: "There was a struggle between Mr Jones and the defendant. He said he could feel the knife 'being moved in a stabbing motion'.
"A member of the public went to help him but Mr Jones slipped during the struggle. Miss Shone went out to the back and pressed the panic button."
CCTV showed Mr Jones throwing a cake display and stock trolley at Doughty before chasing her out of the store.
She got back in the taxi, which had waited for her, and told the driver to take her to shops on Kingsley Circle.
They were closed so she asked him to drive to a nearby address where she promised to get cash to pay him. But Doughty fled without paying the fare.
She was arrested the following day after trying to steal a handbag from a premises at the Eagle's Meadow shopping centre in the town. After her arrest she also tested positive for cocaine.
Doughty admitted two counts of attempted robbery and was jailed for three years and four months.
In her victim impact statement, Miss Chen said: "For two weeks after I had bad dreams and would wake up in the night. I dreamt about someone trying to cut me. Even today this anxiety is with me.
"I have to ask customers to remove hats and scarves. If this happened again I think the whole family would have to move somewhere else."
Mr Jones, in his statement, said: "I do feel I need to talk to someone about what happened. I used to walk home but now I get a taxi."
Mark Shanks, defending Doughty, said she had had a difficult upbringing and the incidents were "totally out of character".
He added: "She fully accepts she started using cocaine more. She's absolutely horrified about her behaviour."
Sentencing Doughty Judge Niclas Parry said she had affected her victims' "psychologically" but there was "strong mitigation".
He said: "You acted out of character. Matters beyond your control made you go off the rails. The sentence for each charge, to run concurrently, is three years, four months."
