Security photo of the alleged Skater's Edge thief which was taken by the store security camera. PHOTO COURTESY FACEBOOK.
A mystery thief who took $500 cash from the back office at Skater’s Edge on Monday, July 20th, appears to have been spotted on security cameras in Arnprior earlier that same day.
Skaters Edge owner Paul McLean created quite a social media buzz when he released the surveillance video of the theft on social media earlier this week.
See the original story & video here: http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c=81912
The video has more than 18,000 views since it was posted on Monday of this week. McLean was devastated when he realized the store was robbed but he was overwhelmed by the amount of support he had from his clientele as they shared the video through social media over and over and over again.
The Renfrew OPP believe the thief, also spotted by security camera's there, was responsible for stealing a wallet at the Arnprior Home Hardware between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on July 20th. Later that day police say the thief snuck into the Antrim Truck Stop in Arnprior, tampered with a lock, and took an unknown amount of cash from an office.
McLean realizes this was likely not a random theft, but instead something planned by an experienced thief.
“I was probably a little bit relieved to find out that it wasn’t someone from North Bay and that this person maybe seems to be a little bit of a professional about this. So it made me feel a little bit better about what happened and definitely still happy about the response we received through the whole thing and how supportive people are and the interest people have taken into it,” said McLean on Thursday afternoon.
McLean feels the best gratification would be finding out the sharing of the surveillance video through social media helped lead to the thief’s arrest.
“To see that the police and the OPP are onto this person and looking at that link, is just that much more re-assuring that this person will be caught and won’t be able to do it to anyone else,” he said.
