‘I felt sorry for him’: Vancouver grocery store owner sympathizes with thief

A Vancouver man says he empathizes with the person caught on video breaking into his grocery store, saying more needs to be done to make sure everyone can get enough to eat.

Caught on surveillance video early Wednesday morning, a person is seen walking up to the East West Market on Main Street.

The suspect is seen throwing a rock that shatters the front door, entering the store, and walking out with their arms full of food.

“At first, when I looked at the surveillance video I was upset,” Owner David Lee Kwen said.

After the shock wore off and despite the damage left behind, Kwen says he’s not angry.

“When I look at it deeper — the guy stole basic things to eat, bananas, chocolate bars. I actually felt sorry for him. To come to a point where you have to steal to eat, that’s really bad. We are not a Third World country — this is Canada,” he explained.

“Eating should be a right — it should not be a privilege.” 

Tammara Soma, the research director at the Food Systems lab at Simon Fraser University, says the cost of living is still going up and people are desperate.

“This is not an acceptable state in Canada,” she said. “There needs to be multiple solutions at all levels of government.”

She is pushing for more programs to help people.

“A lot of advocates and poverty reduction groups have advocated over and over again for some basic income, and most importantly, is the housing issue. Even if we cut out the food inflation piece, the housing rate is rising. That is extremely unsustainable. The more people have to pay for housing, the less they can pay for food.”

Kwen has owned the grocery store for about five years, and says he’s never seen anything like the robbery before.

“In the good old days, they would head to the cash register to take the money. But no — he just wanted food,” he said.

He adds the ‘Canadian dream’ is becoming harder to reach.

“I am from Trinidad. We came to Canada to better ourselves, and we [have lived] here ever since because Canada is a great place. And I would like to see Canada be great again but the way it is heading, it’s not heading in the right direction”

The Vancouver Police Department says the investigation into the break-in remains open, and no suspects have been identified.