Lloyd Blazs moved to the Agassiz area from North Vancouver because he wanted a break from city life and all that comes with it.
Like crime.
And for the most part, his existence has been quiet. But Saturday afternoon he saw a brazen crime take place right in front of him in Chilliwack’s Eagle Landing Walmart parking lot. Blazs and a companion were walking back to their car with their purchases when they heard sounds of a scuffle behind them.
“We heard yelling and screaming,” Blazs recalled. “We turned around and saw a guy tussling with someone else through the driver-side window of a car.”
The car was a taxi.
The man, who identified himself on social media, was driver Kevin Wolcoski.
He was being robbed and bear-sprayed in the face.
Wolcoski was battling with two people, a man and a woman. The man had called for his cab from the customer service desk inside Walmart.
When he arrived to pick them up, the woman asked Wolcoski to get out of the car and pop the trunk. When he did that, the male suspect allegedly tore out of Walmart with four large, plastic storage containers, throwing them into the trunk of the cab.
A Walmart loss prevention officer followed the man outside, asking for a receipt.
Meanwhile, with Wolcoski out of the car, the woman allegedly jumped into the driver seat, ready to make the escape.
“These two were equipped for a confrontation, and the man had this big can of bear-spray. Not a little one you stick in your pocket, but a big can,” Blazs said. “And as the driver was trying to get this woman out of the cab on one side, the man was on the other side, spraying him over the roof and windshield.”
“I think he may have gotten some backlash from his own spray,” Blazs continued, chuckling. “You’ve got to make sure you don’t spray into the wind.”
Wolcoski was eventually incapacitated enough for the pair to get into the car and take off.
“Her first attempt trying to leave she almost ran into those big blue poles in front of the doorway,” Blazs said. “At that point I don’t think they cared who or what they hit, and she came within 15 feet of me when she finally got going. The trunk was still open, flapping in the breeze when they left the parking lot.”
Wolcoski reported on Facebook that the pair escaped with a nearly-new GPS, Kobo eReader, his wallet with $250 in bills and over $20 in small change. His wallet was recovered, minus the cash
He also said he wasn’t seriously hurt by the bear-spray, most of which hit the side of his head, not full in the face.