Police in Richmond, B.C., have arrested a man who was involved in a dine-and-dash incident where he was caught on video scooping frozen yogurt with his hands.
The incident happened on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at Timothy’s Frozen Yogurt in Steveston, according to Katelyn Sieg, an eyewitness and employee of nearby Pierside Deli.
“On Thursday, when he actually got arrested for an unrelated crime, they came by and told us, ‘Hey, don’t worry, he’s been arrested,’” she told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.
Sieg said the police told them if the man did return to the area, they should not approach him but contact the authorities who would come and arrest him.
The Epoch Times reached out to the local RCMP but did not hear back by publication time.
Sieg said she was in the deli on Oct. 16 when an employee from Timothy’s Frozen Yogurt came in to say the man was back. He had two previous incidents in the store, and the boss had told employees to call police if he returned, she said.
“I said, ‘OK, let’s go over to your store and close up, and then you stay here until your boss shows up,’” she said.
When they arrived at the store, the man was already behind the counter, Sieg said.
“I actually yelled, ‘Hey’ really loud to get his attention, and he jumped. He was already behind the counter rummaging through their stuff. He got scared, and he jumped up, and he reached for a cone, and he crushed it by accident,” she said.
It was then that Sieg reached for her camera to record what was happening.
In the video, which Sieg provided to The Epoch Times, the man has an ice cream cone in his hand and ignores Sieg’s telling him to get out of the store and that police are on the way. Instead, he walks over to the frozen yogurt counter and reaches in to scoop some with his hands. Sieg can be heard telling him again to leave. The man reaches in a second time to scoop some ice cream with his hands and put it on the cone.
He then picks up a bag and strolls out of the store, telling Sieg to “take care.”
“The most jarring part of the whole ordeal, in my opinion, was him scooping the ice cream with just his hands,” she said.
It’s not the first time the man has caused trouble at Timothy’s Frozen Yogurt, Sieg said.
“The first time he had come in was about two and a half weeks ago and he said that he lost his cell phone,” she said. “He actually went behind the counter and they shooed him away, saying, ‘Get out. Get out.’ And he left.”
She said the second time he stopped by the store, he asked for an ice cream and left without paying.
While it was the first time she had seen the man, he has been the talk of businesses in the area for the past year for his behaviour, including stealing a remote from a local restaurant and returning it a while later.
“The likelihood is he just wasn’t in the right state of mind,” she said, “I don’t wish anything bad on this gentleman. I hope he gets the best help he can get. I just don’t want to see him again.”
