Man sues grocery store after he tried to steal car, was ‘punched, kicked and hit’ by staffers

A chronic thief who was beaten up after he was caught trying to steal a car outside an inner-city grocery store is suing staff, arguing he was left with life-altering injuries.

“The amount of force used against him was far in excess of what was necessary to execute a citizen’s arrest or detain him pending the arrival of law enforcement personnel,” 36-year-old Michael Prince alleged in a statement of claim filed earlier this month by his lawyer in the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench.

According to defence submissions heard last summer at his sentencing for a series of unrelated thefts, Prince was arrested in connection to the incident Feb. 26, 2024, after police followed a blood trail to the door of his Bannatyne Avenue home.

In his statement of claim, Prince says he was at Dino’s Grocery Mart on Isabel Street when he stole a jacket containing a wallet and car key fob and went home.

“Prince says that after about 30 minutes, he decided to return to the store to steal the vehicle associated with the key fob,” the court papers say.

When he arrived, Prince found the car boxed in by two other vehicles. Prince entered the car, triggering its alarm, attracting the attention of eight or nine store staff who pulled Prince from the vehicle and “punched, kicked and hit him repeatedly” and struck him with a hammer, alleges the statement of claim.

“Prince says he has no memory of fleeing the scene of the assault until he found himself running about a block away from the scene,” it reads.

“Prince says that when he became aware of his surroundings, he discovered that he was bleeding and had suffered blows to the head, which he later learned were the result of being hit by a hammer wielded by one or more of the assailants.”

Prince spent a day in hospital before he was taken into police custody and charged with theft.

“Prince says that since the (incident), he suffers from constant fear, anxiety, apprehensiveness, depression and feelings of worthlessness as a result of the conduct of the defendants”

Prince’s claim names Dino’s Grocery, “supervisor and/or owner/operator” Rajan Varma and eight “John or Jane Doe(s)” as defendants.

Varma was never charged in connection with the alleged incident and the theft charge against Prince was later stayed.

Both Varma and Prince’s lawyer, Phillip Cramer, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Prince, described in the statement of claim as an “unemployed labourer” is suing for loss of opportunity to earn an income and “loss of enjoyment of life” and other damages, alleging he has suffered permanent hearing and vision loss, cranial nerve damage, and ongoing migraines, insomnia and panic attacks.

“Prince says that since the (incident), he suffers from constant fear, anxiety, apprehensiveness, depression and feelings of worthlessness as a result of the conduct of the defendants” and is unable to maintain employment, the claim alleges.

Court records show Prince has at least 17 prior convictions for property offences.

Last summer, Prince pleaded guilty to half a dozen counts of theft and was sentenced to 17 months in custody. In one incident, Prince ran out of a Red River Co-Op store with $800 worth of e-cigarettes. In another, security cameras captured Prince and another man walking out of a Main Street Shoppers Drug Mart storage room with two big-screen televisions worth $4,000.

According to a pre-sentence report prepared for court, Prince claimed he had been the head of a “profitable theft ring” and had stolen more than $1 million in merchandise over a nine-year period. Prince said he had been “groomed” from a young age into a life of crime by his uncles and cousins, and used his theft proceeds to support his addictions to gambling and methamphetamine.

In that same pre-sentence report, Prince was quoted as saying he was “hoping for significant payment from various things,” including a lawsuit against the grocery store staff who beat him.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca