A 26-year-old man broke both ankles and one of his wrists after falling 10 metres over a railing when he fled from a robbery attempt at a downtown Toronto grocery store Wednesday night.
Toronto police said the robbery took place around 10 p.m. at the Rabba Fine Foods location near Front Street West and Blue Jays Way.
Police said the suspect was being chased by a store employee after taking some lottery scratch cards, jumped over a nearby railing and fell to the ground below.
“When he made that jump, he then realized it was approximately 35 feet to the ground. He then tried to retrack and jump back on the portion of the bridge,” Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu said.
“At that point, the two men that were assisting were then helping him to get back on the ground but he slipped and fell.”
Rabba store manager Frank Bernardi said the staff member simply wanted to retrieve the stolen tickets.
“As they were running outside, from what I hear, there was a policeman on patrol on his bike,” Bernardi said. “So he was caught between my guy and the policeman and I guess he decided to jump.”
“We do have cameras and security and all this. I don’t know what possesses people to do things like that.”
Police said the male suspect was taken to hospital with serious injuries to his limbs but is expected to recover.
Bernardi said he is proud of his employees who leapt into action.
“I admire that. We don’t tolerate things like that,” Bernardi said. “Hopefully we send out a message that this is not a place to come to to try things like that.”
Anyone with information is being asked to call 52 Division at 416-808-5200 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477.
With files from Cindy Pom
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