by Craig Gilbert | [email protected]
A pair of crooks are alleged to have made off with part of the Family Day weekend take at Ana Lea’s Candy Lane in a brazen daylight heist on Feb. 18.
According to the colourful Patricia Street sweet shop’s owner and namesake, Ana Lea Berenguer, the men entered the store during a “busy, busy weekend” together shortly before 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
They were caught on camera. One was heavyset and in a black Underarmor baseball cap. The other appeared much older, perhaps in his 80s, according to Berenguer. They exchanged hand signals before the heavyset man distracted the cashier at the front of the store while the other slipped behind the curtain in the doorway to the back, routed through Berenguer’s desk and made off with cash.
The incident has been reported to RCMP.
“He was in there for about two-and-a-half minutes,” she said. “He came out, the other one finished his conversation and out they went. They knew exactly where to go.”
Accustomed to occasional cases of shoplifting, Berenguer said the theft left her feeling violated.
“It’s not so much about all the cash,” she said. “This is my home. It’s my bread and butter, it’s what I use to put food on the table for my kids."
She said her lesson is to take more precautions.
“I like to believe most people are good, but it just really teaches you that you never know,” she said. “Who would think that this old guy would do that?”
