Police seek suspects in mall theft, where civilian jumped on hood of getaway vehicle
By Peggy Revell on April 24, 2018.
prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell Police say there were no reported injuries after a civilian attempted to intervene in a theft from the mall last Thursday, even ending up on the hood of a getaway vehicle. The incident occurred on April 19 at 5:20 p.m., said Insp. Tim McGough with the Medicine Hat Police Service, when three unknown men went to the Virgin Mobile kiosk at the Medicine Hat Mall, and stole four of the demonstration iPhones. “As they were making their getaway on foot, a citizen who was going through the mall — who was an employee of the mall — saw these three males running and took off after them,” said McGough. “They got into a vehicle to make their way out of the mall parking lot. He did jump on the hood of the vehicle as the vehicle was driving away. He may or may not be pepper sprayed. It sounds like they sprayed a substance at him, and he fell off the vehicle and the people took off.” “We just have a pretty vague description of the males. They’re unknown to police at this time,” McGough said, adding that a licence plate number wasn’t obtained. McGough said they have no reported injuries of the civilian. The kiosk was damaged, while the value of the stolen items were around $3,700. While police are thankful for information they receive from civilians, they prefer people not intervene, said McGough. “We don’t want anyone getting hurt over some stolen property,” he said, with his advice being to follow someone from a safe distance and if possible take a photograph of the licence plate, and contact police. “That way we can start tracking it down from at least the vehicle. We don’t know if the vehicle is stolen because we don’t have the plate number. If we have that license plate we can start our inquiries from that point in time.” 10
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