According to many store owners on the one-way stretch of Fraser Highway in Langley City, store robberies are on the increase, and very brazen. At least four stores have been robbed in the past two weeks.
One young woman, who doesn’t want to be named out of fear, quit her job after she was robbed while working at a clothing store on June 6. She has since turned down job offers at other stores on the one-way, because of fear she would be robbed again. Langley RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Holly Marks said they have no record of an increase in robberies on the one-way.
“They must not be reporting them,” she said.
She is urging shop owners to report all criminal activity to police.
Meanwhile, the victim of one robbery is still shaken up.
A man whom she described as six feet tall, sweaty and jumpy, came into the store she was working in by herself and asked if the manager was in. She said no, it was just her.
The man came back a minute later, telling her he was moving into the shop next door and knew the owner. He knew the owner’s name and said she would give him money for a tow truck.
The woman said “no” and that’s when he walked her to the till and said “give me the money.”
He asked for a specific amount. She complied. He left and came back in, yelling she hadn’t given him enough. She complied again, and he ran from the store.
She called police and a report has been filed.
Langley RCMP say that is the only call they have received lately. They aren’t defining it as a robbery, because it appears he must have known the owner somehow, said Marks.