Keegan Moses felt that something wasn’t right when two customers came into his store in Mission on Tuesday night.
The owner of Dr. Fix Computers on 1st Avenue became suspicious after the pair, a woman and a man, started pointing at products they wanted to buy.
Coverage of surveillance video on Globalnews.ca:
The pair chose a laptop and other merchandise that added up to over $1,000. But the transaction didn’t go through when they tried to pay.
Moses was suspicious that a card they were using was stolen. One of them wouldn’t hand it over when he asked for it.
So Moses locked a security door at the store, keeping the customers inside, and called 911.
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But a half hour went by. And there was no sign of the RCMP.
In that time, the woman slipped her wallet through the security door and handed it to a man outside.
The police dispatcher eventually called back and instructed Moses to let them go.
“Like, release them? Is that it?” he said.
But why?
“For my safety and they were saying like we are not allowed to leave them locked inside the store,” Moses said.
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Only one person responded to Moses’ call for help — Sean Barry, the owner of the candy store next door.
“I sit on the board for the downtown business association, we’re working hard to clean up down here,” he said.
“For them to tell us to turn these people away was really frustrating.”
The RCMP said that police need to prioritize files, and that public safety comes first.