Thousands of dollars worth of merchandise have been stolen from a pair of Clyde Corner gas stations.
Mounties say the Clyde Fas Gas was hit by thieves around 1:35 a.m. on July 18 when a man wearing dark clothes pried open the door of the service station.
“He was wearing dark clothing,” said Westlock RCMP acting Cpl. Richard Buisseret.
“He had a black baseball hat, sunglasses and a bandanna over his face.”
A video surveillance tape revealed a Caucasian man entered the store with a black garbage bin and went on a rampage. Buisseret noted the thief was about 5’11” and had light brown or blonde hair, and a partially shaved head.
Buisseret said the total of missing merchandise could be upwards of $7,500.
Surveillance tapes reveal that the thief stole a metal safe and cabinet that was more than five feet in height from a locked office inside the store.
It was filled with roughly 80 packages of cigarettes and as much as $500 worth of pre-authorized lottery tickets.
“That cabinet and safe are not light and the way he picked it up and was walking with it … it was like it didn’t weigh anything,” said Clyde Fas Gas’ general manager Brenda Morozewich, noting an imprint of his foot was left on her office door.
“He was really pumped up on adrenaline or something. It took him only three minutes and 10 seconds to do everything he did.”
Buisseret suspects the same thief hit the Clyde Petro Canada shortly afterwards.
Around 5:30 a.m. that morning, the Clyde Petro Canada reported the glass door at the front of the store had been smashed and many items were stolen.
“The front door was smashed open and cigarettes, and a small amount of change in the till had been taken,” said Buisseret.
The Korean couple who own the store, and live on the property, said the crime was “peculiar.”
“My mom and my father were the first people to arrive,” said Clyde Petro Canada manager Steven Kwon, whose parents own the store. “My father called the police before I came out. He called a couple of times and I also called the police as well because we weren’t getting any response.”
It took about an hour and 20 minutes for the police to arrive, he added. The family was forced to close the business until about 4 p.m. last Thursday while police investigated the damage.
On Friday, the family spent the majority of the afternoon working with Biddiscombe Glass to repair the door before the weekend and were discussing how to increase security measures in the future.
But Kwon was quick to point out that thieves are determined and often find creative solutions to get what they want.
“When we heard about the Fas Gas, that had a much better security system and they had the same thing,” he said. “We have a dog in the backyard and it didn’t even bark and there was a truck driver who spent the night with his window open because it was hot and he didn’t hear anything either. We might think about getting a few cameras here and there as well.”
Kwon said repairs could take as long as two months. “Sometimes strange things happen and you make the best of it,” Kwon said, while lifting a piece of newsprint to show the a limited supply of remaining cartons of cigarettes for sale.
“It is better to be too happy than too sad.”
No arrests have been made and police are asking people from the community with any helpful information to contact the Westlock RCMP at 780-349-4492 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS).
