Store clerk beaten after theft at Winnipeg dollar store

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This article was published 06/11/2018 (2693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police are looking for two men who attacked a young female store clerk, beating her unconscious during a theft Monday at a Dollarama store on St. Anne’s Road.

The clerk observed the two men leaving the store around 9 p.m. with a load of groceries without paying, police said Tuesday.

She followed the men out of the store and photographed their vehicle’s licence plate with her smartphone.

The two men saw her, and gave chase, beating the 19-year-old woman on the ground and taking away her phone. The men reportedly only quit when someone standing in the doorway of the store shouted at them.

“This is a serious incident,” said Winnipeg Police Service Const. Tammy Skrabek. “She suffered some serious upper-body injuries and was unconscious and treated in hospital.”

The store’s manager said Tuesday the company had already offered counselling to the clerk, and she had refused, but he would ask again, when she has had more time. The manager declined a request for a media interview.

The clerk’s mother, who was in the store Tuesday to speak with the manager, would only say her daughter had been released from hospital.

Skrabek said there is likely surveillance camera footage of the incident, and police were to confirm Tuesday afternoon whether the system had been in operation.

She said the young clerk only acted out of dedication to her employer.

“She’s just a young employee. And as an employee, it’s hard to say, ‘Let’s just allow someone to walk in and leave the store with goods.'”

Skrabek added police always tell people to “get a plate number, get a description” where there has been a crime.

“I don’t want to discourage people or victim-blame at all,” she said, adding people should be discrete and protect themselves when recording down something like a licence plate.

Police don’t want people putting themselves in danger, Skrabek said, adding it was a little surprising on the part of the suspects to come back and chase the clerk so near the store entrance.

“To return to the store, you’re taking an awful chance that one, there are witnesses, and two, that someone has already called the police,” she said. “But to their mind, the biggest thing was getting the phone away so they wouldn’t get caught.”

The suspects are described as Indigenous males, 25 to 35 years of age, about six-feet tall with average builds and short dark hair. The vehicle is described as a white, newer model SUV.

Anyone with information that may assist investigators is asked to call 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477).

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca