A 37-year-old man is facing charges after allegedly stealing lottery tickets from a Port Moody gas station Wednesday — three hours after being released by police on another matter.
The incident occurred shortly after 9 p.m. March 4, when the suspect entered the store near the Inlet Centre SkyTrain Station and asked for $30 worth of tickets and cigarettes. When the store clerk turned his back, the man allegedly grabbed the items and ran out the door.
Police said the suspect yelled "I have a knife, I have a knife" as a store employee chased after him.
"Although a knife was not produced or seen by the gas station employee during this incident, the fear of being threatened with the suggestion of a knife was very real," police said in a press release.
Garrett Robert Coulombe was arrested a short time later when a Metro Vancouver Transit Police officer recognized him from a description provided to SkyTrain staff by the Port Moody Police Department. He was taken into custody as he got off the SkyTrain at Lougheed Station.
Officers said the suspect, who is of no fixed address, is well-known to them and had been released from Port Moody custody three hours before the incident on an unrelated matter.
He has since been released from custody under multiple conditions, including not possessing knives or weapons. His next court appearance is on March 19.
