Peel Regional Police say they are investigating after a video showed a man intervening during an attempted theft at an LCBO in Mississauga in May.
Video shared to TikTok by Parris Brooks shows two men rushing toward a vehicle after allegedly attempting to steal multiple bottles of alcohol from an LCBO store in the Streetsville neighbourhood, near Queen Street South and Tannery Street.
Brooks is then seen removing the vehicle’s licence plate, which appeared to be covered by a tinted plate cover.
Brooks told CTV News on Tuesday that he was buying a beer at the LCBO shortly before 5 p.m. on May 17 when he heard two women threatening to call police.
Brooks said he initially planned to ignore the commotion until he encountered the two suspects.
After confronting them, the pair attempted to flee. During the struggle, Brooks said he managed to take one of the baskets containing the stolen goods from one of the suspects.
“There were at least eight bottles in the basket,” he said.
“I grabbed the basket from one guy and yanked it away from him. Then they looked back, I guess deciding what to do, then they ran out to their car,” said Brooks, who said the pair escaped with one bottle.
According to Brooks, he intervened because he did not want to be “a typical person that just stands around and watches things happen.”
“I’ve never been that type of person. I’ve always acted in situations like this to do the right thing,” he said.
“They didn’t expect someone to do what I did.”
“I ruined their whole plan for the day. Maybe they wanted to go hit up some more LCBOs, and without that licence plate, now they couldn’t do that.”
1 suspect may be linked to other incidents
In a statement to CTV News, Const. Tyler Bell-Morena, a media relations officer with Peel Regional Police, said the incident remains under investigation.
He said one of the suspects has been identified and is also believed to be involved in several other theft-related incidents.
Bell-Morena said efforts to arrest both suspects are underway.
No suspect descriptions have been released.
He added that it is not the police’s role to tell members of the public whether they should intervene in incidents such as this, but officers want people to be aware of the potential risks involved.
“Incidents can escalate quickly and unpredictably become violent, and our primary concern is always the safety of that individual,” Bell-Morena said.
“We do not want to see members of the public injured while attempting to prevent a theft of property.”
He urged the public to instead contact police immediately.
“Information such as suspect descriptions, direction of travel, vehicle details and video evidence can be extremely helpful to an investigation,” Bell-Morena said.
“With respect to members of the public intervening in situations such as this, we understand why individuals choose to take action when they witness a crime in progress,” he added.
“In some cases, their actions and observations can provide valuable information to investigators.”
