 This is a large, very large theft that happened on Monday evening at a very high-end retailer in Kitsilano. It was on Monday evening, around 6.30 when two armed suspects armed with bear spray walked into a high-end retailer on Arbutus near 4th Avenue. They deployed the bear spray and they stole over $25,000 in store merchandise. The suspects then fled in a taxi. A very heads-up witness took a photo of this taxi and showed it to our officers who arrived on scene. Our officers were available or immediately able to locate the cab, which had one of the suspects in it. So we made an arrest of that suspect. The second suspect then was arrested a short time after that in the downtown east side. So Anthony Britch, a 35-year-old man, is charged with theft, assault, and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. He remains in custody until his next court appearance. The second suspect, Alana De Silva, a 30-year-old woman, was charged with theft and she has been released with court-imposed conditions. Any questions on this one? Anybody hurt with the bear spray? So a security guard was contaminated with the bear spray, and the paramedics did arrive on scene to help decontaminate him. That's the extent of his injuries. There are two high-end retailers in that corner. Are you able to say which one it was? It was the Artax. Any damage to the store or anything like that? I don't believe so, no. And all of that merchandise was covered? That's right, yes. So when our officers located the two suspects, they were able to recover the merchandise. This was over $25,000 in store merchandise that was covered that we were able to get back to the store. What's the relationship between the two suspects? I don't know. And the taxi driver involved, is he or is that person being considered a victim? I don't believe so, no. Are they being considered like an accessory or do you know? No, right now we have two people charged and those are the two people who committed the robbery. Anthony Birch and Alana De Silva. Can you even share with us? No, no video at this point. Just kind of going down that same line of question. I guess for the tax drivers or Uber drivers out there, somebody's committing a crime and they jump in the back of your vehicle. What are you supposed to do in that situation? Yeah, I mean I wouldn't place the focus on taxier's Uber drivers. That's not what this is about. This is about two suspects that stole a large amount of clothes and how we were able to get the clothes back with the help of a citizen. We've been talking about it for weeks. You've probably heard of Project Barco that's shoplifting, high-end shoplifting is a problem here in Vancouver and we are doing things, projects to help tackle that. So in this case, these two people called a taxi. By no means was a taxi involved in this. It's just their means of transportation. I was thinking more like safety tips for the tax drivers. They may have criminals in the back. Totally. If anybody ever feels unsafe, whether you're in a taxi, you see something or you're the taxi driver 100%, call police all the time, full stop. How do you call when the suspect is behind you? Pardon me? When the suspect is behind you, how should they act? If they call 911, they might get hurt, right? Right, so again, if anybody does feel unsafe, of course we want you to call police when you get to a safe spot. So if you are in a situation where you're not able to call police, when you get to a situation where you can call police, definitely get to a situation, or call us. But again, this isn't about the taxi driver in this case. And to my knowledge, he had no knowledge of this incident happened. Is the BPD seeing an uptick in high-end retail? Yeah, so all of last year we conducted project barcode. We did four installments of that, which was targeting violent shoplifting in the city of Vancouver, more notably in the north end of the city, but it was happening all throughout the city. So we've done four installments of that project, recovered thousands and thousands of dollars in store merchandise and hundreds of arrests in that. So that project is something, and projects like that are still ongoing. But yes, we have noticed an uptick in violent robbery just like in this case, where weapons are used, bear spray, guns, imitation guns, hammers, batons, all of that. Okay, thank you.