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A confrontation between two Kelowna men and a pair of break-and-enter suspects was caught on camera on Tuesday afternoon.
The incident happened in the parking lot in front of Real Canadian Superstore less than 24 hours after an early morning break-and-enter at Sutherland Super Wash.
The two men, who have ties to the car wash, had seen security footage of the overnight robbery and were getting lunch on Tuesday when they spotted the suspects.
“(Kurtis says), that’s the same bag, same clothes, same (girl), same longboard,” explained Justin Brand, a Kelowna business owner.
“So I was like, okay, I guess we’ll look in the bag and see if he’s got the bolt cutters.”
That’s when the video begins, as Brand confronts the man and demands that he take off his bag so they can see if the bolt cutters allegedly used in the break-and-enter were inside.
They find the bolt cutters and are able to identify them as the ones used at the car wash through a missing piece of rubber on the handle.
At that point, the two men try to detain the suspects as they call the police, but their attempts are unsuccessful.
According to Brand, the male suspect “high-speed walked” away from them towards Orchard Park Mall before taking off towards Hwy 97.
“When he ran across 97, I wasn’t running into traffic to keep going after him,” said Brand. “So I waited for traffic to calm and I lost eyes on him at that point.”
Cpl. Jesse O’Donaghey confirmed that the RCMP did arrive at the scene and attempted to find the fleeing suspect, but weren’t able to apprehend him.
“He was not located, nor arrested,” O’Donaghey told KelownaNow.
“RCMP are gathering information as they continue to investigate the reported commercial break and enter and the circumstances surrounding the confrontation.”
O’Donaghey added that the RCMP cautions the public from taking matters into their own hands for safety reasons and urges anyone that spots a criminal suspect to call it in to police.
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