Late night trouble at 7-11

Last Friday night (September 8) brought a bit of a scare to the staff and customers to Prince Rupert’s only 7-11 convenience store. An intoxicated male is alleged to have approached the staff with a propane canister and with threats of death. The staff managed to evacuate the store, leaving the male to his own company until the RCMP arrived on the scene.

They arrested him with no further difficulties but not before he had caused over 5,000 dollars in damage to the store. The RCMP continue their investigation into the incident.

The Daily News had the full details of the incident in their Monday edition.

POLICE RESPOND QUICKLY TO INCIDENT AT STORE
By Patrick Witwicki
The Daily News
Monday, September 11, 2006
Page One

Employees at 7-eleven received a bit of a scare Friday night when an intoxicated male allegedly went behind the counter with a propane canister.

At approximately 11:30 p. m., police say, a man entered the store and after grabbing hold of a propane canister, went behind the counter.

Levi Piche had just begun the graveyard shift that evening, but he and his co-worker were able to get out of the store safely, along with all of the other customers.

“My co-worker (name removed) asked him if he needed any help when he came in behind the counter,” said Piche.

“He held up the canister and told her he was going to kill her, so she hit the panic button and got out of there.”

Piche first went into the back room to check if another employee who had just finished her shift was still around, but she had already headed outside.

Piche and the others then got out of the store, and waited for the RCMP to arrive.

Officers arrived within a few minutes, said Piche.

After the store was vacated, police say the male then tried to get into the cash registers by using a lighter to try to ignite the propane canister.

Damage is estimated at $5,000.

However, RCMP arrived and arrested a suspect and no further damage was incurred.

“No one got hurt, and it was just threats, but he didn’t carry through with them,’ said Piche.

“Property damage can be replaced, but lives can’t.”

(name removed) was apparently shaken up by the incident, but Piche was back at work the next day.

He said that while at the time “it was pretty scary,” the toughest part of going back to work was answering the same questions from customers over and over.

“Hearing it over and over, the rumours, and ‘how did this happen,’ it started to get to me,” he said.

The matter is still under investigation by the RCMP.

***Please Note***

In yesterday's front page Daily News story 'Police respond quickly to incident at store' we interviewed one of the workers at a 7-eleven store that was robbed. During the story, we named the man's co-worker at the time. We did not speak to the co-worker, nor did we tell her in advance that her name was about to appear in the paper. Ordinarill, we make an effort not to identify the victims of crime unless they expressly give us permission to do so. We regret any distress this may have caused.