

Chris Fox, CP24.com





Police are appealing to the public for assistance identifying a so-called “group of thugs” responsible for as many as 10 armed robberies, including one in which a suspect pointed a BB gun at a woman and young child.

Police say that the robberies have taken place between March 14 and April 11 at fast food restaurants located in an area in and around Finch Avenue between Highway 27 and Weston Road.

According to Staff Inspector Mike Earl, the robberies have been carried out by one, two or three suspects.

In the robberies involving three suspects, Earl said that one of them enters the restaurant and removes a Red Ryder style BB gun from his pants before demanding money. The second suspect then vaults over the counter and begins removing cash from the register while the third suspect stands watch at the door, Earl says.

The staff inspector said that the robberies have been particularly brazen with a suspect grabbing a teller by the hair in one incident and pointing the BB gun at the “cowering” woman and child in another.

That woman was later robbed of her wallet in that robbery, Earl said.

“If you actually saw the child’s face you would see the fear in the child’s face with the rifle pointed at them,” Earl told reporters at a news conference on Thursday. “I am sure the mother and child will have some issues for a little while trying to get over this.”

Earl said that the suspects have only made off with a “small amount of cash” in each of the robberies.

Nonetheless, he said that the violent nature of some of the incidents is of great concern.

He also dubbed the suspects “loose lever losers” in reference to the type of BB gun they have used, which he noted can puncture skin and could even “cost someone an eye.”

“This should not be happening,” he said. “These guys have seen too many spaghetti westerns and it is almost like they are stage coach robberies with their masks and rifles.”

Earl said that investigators are unsure whether or not the suspects have used a getaway vehicle in the robberies and have “no other clues” other than surveillance camera footage.