A Vancouver senior was briefly abducted at gunpoint last week along a busy section of West Broadway, police revealed Monday as they appealed for witnesses in the shocking daylight robbery.
At around noon on Aug. 17, a 69-year-old man was walking in the 2900 block of West Broadway, between Balaclava and Bayswater streets, when two men in their 20s approached him with a gun and forced him into a new-model black crew-cab pickup.
A woman in her 20s drove the vehicle several blocks to a lane near the 2700 block of West 13th Ave. The man was pushed out of the truck and robbed of his wallet. He was pepper sprayed in the face and struck in the head with a metal pipe.
“It’s very disturbing,” said Const. Jana McGuinness. “It’s a shocking crime and very out of place in this West Side neighbourhood. It’s going to have residents concerned.”
The man was treated in hospital for pepper spray and for an abrasion to his head. McGuinness said the man was “very disturbed” by the robbery.
Police kept mum about the robbery for a week to let investigators go about their business, but are now asking for the public’s help. McGuinness said the robbery appeared to be random and has not been linked to any other crime in the area.
“We’ve been working very hard to find out what is behind this. What could have been the motive, other than robbery, why was he selected? It’s a daytime, brazen violent robbery and it’s important that we get some help.”
