A downtown Vancouver shoplifter has been charged with robbery after allegedly threatening a grocery store worker with a meat cleaver.
Vancouver police said the 23-year-old suspect was at a Robson Street grocery store on Monday morning when a staff member noticed the man was not wearing a mask.
The employee asked the man to put on a mask and that is when the man allegedly pulled out the meat cleaver, threatened the worker and then left the store without paying for his groceries, police said.
“Because the victim called police right away, VPD officers were able to respond quickly and arrest the suspect, who was trying to leave in a taxi,” Sgt. Steve Addison said in a release. “The stolen goods were returned to the store and the suspect was taken to jail. Fortunately, nobody was physically hurt.”
Cody Echlin was charged with one count of robbery and released on bail, police said.
Addison said it is not known if Echlin was previously known to police but he said this is an example of increasingly violent behaviour officers are seeing in the downtown core.
“In this case, we’re fortunate the staff member did phone the police right away as it enabled us to send officers to the area right away and arrest the suspect,” he added.
Addison added they have received more calls about some people refusing to wear masks and store employees or transit employees had to call the police for help but there has not been a spike in calls, he said.