ST. AlLBERT, Alta — St. Albert police are seeking the public’s help to track down a man who bear-sprayed one person and struck another with a car after stealing a Rolex from the reception area of a bank.
The St. Albert RCMP put out a message July 22 about how they were looking for a suspect related to a robbery which occurred July 14.
Two people selling a Rolex watch had arranged to meet a potential Kijiji buyer in the reception area of the TD Canada Trust bank on Inglewood Drive that day at about 3 p.m., said Cst. M-J Burroughs. The buyer, a man, arrived, exchanged small talk with the sellers, and asked to see the watch. When one of the sellers handed the man the watch, the man looked at it and ran out of the bank.
The sellers pursued the man as he ran east behind the bank toward Inglewood Drive. The man pulled a can of bear spray from a satchel on his chest and sprayed one of the sellers in the face. The sellers continued their pursuit. The seller who got sprayed fell onto the grass in front of Speedy Auto Glass while their associate pursued the man toward the St. Albert Bowling Alley.
Burroughs said the man ran into the bowling alley’s parking lot and got into what police believe to be a 2010-2012 steel blue metallic Ford Escape, which drove out the lot’s north entrance. The second seller ran in front the vehicle and was struck by it. The vehicle did not stop and proceeded south onto Inglewood Drive.
Burroughs said one of the sellers received first aid for the bear spray while the other was taken by ambulance to the Sturgeon Hospital, where they were later released. Police have recovered the stolen watch through means Burroughs declined to specify.
RCMP are now looking for tips on the robbery and the suspect, who is described as male, roughly 6’ tall, 170 pounds, with a lanky build and short dark hair. The suspect had some sort of tattoo on his right hand or arm and may have been Asian or Indigenous. At the time of the theft, he was wearing a COVID mask, a black shirt, black pants, and a black-cross-strap satchel.
Burroughs said robberies such as this are very uncommon in St. Albert. Instead of pursuing a thief, as the sellers did in this situation, she said victims of theft should instead report the crime to police and not put themselves in harm’s way.
“You never know what any person is capable of doing or if they have accomplices with them,” she said.
Burroughs noted that the bank was occupied during this crime and others could have been put at risk. She encourages residents doing online sales or child custody exchanges to use the Safe Internet Exchange Zone in the parking lot at Servus Place, which is under 24/7 video surveillance.
Anyone with information on this crime should call St. Albert RCMP at 780-458-7700 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
