Fun in the Downtown Core

At about 5:50 on Wednesday night, my daughter and I were ambling across Blanshard up Fort St.. A woman in a white 4-door sedan (like a late 80s-early 90s Dodge something or other), pulled across the crosswalk to position herself to turn right up Fort Street. A litte douche-baggy, sure, but she cut off had cut off no pedestrians.

This guy ahead of us:
- 50's maybe 60's in age
- caucasian
- average anglo-European feature
- 5'10" - 6' 0" (it's a guess-- I'm not the Terminator with one of those HUD things)
- average-to-slim build (maybe 170 lbs.)
- salt-and-pepper grey hair, short but more-or-less a full head of hair
- dark blue pants (cargo pants or un-worn jeans)
- navy waist-length windbreaker-- Fall weight (some padding)

The guy approached the drivers window and open palmed, smashed his hands against her window. It shatters. There is a moment of confusion, then he does a speedy walk South on Blanshard. I thought, "you're not getting away motherfucker."
So, we did a brisk walk about 30 feet behind him while I tried to unlock my phone and call 9-1-1. He rounded the corner on Broughton, going East. Theoretically out of public view, he picked up his speed and dashed into the parking area at 818 Broughton (Monday Publications). He dropped out of sight so I thought he was gone. I had to repeat and repeat things with the 9-1-1 operator (good thing I was calling as a witness and not a victim-- I'd be dead).
A few minutes later while I was on the phone, he walked out from the parking area, holding his jacket in his hand. Underneath, he had a golf-shirt-type shirt: thick vertical white, green and maroon stripes. He dashed across the street and disappeared past the CHUM Radio offices (how is this for funny irony-- a newsworthy event and the criminal goes from taking refuge at one news outlet then another).
He takes off. A moment later, one of the other witnesses on a scooter zips up and asks if I saw him. I pointed him in the direction of where the bastard took off. He zipped off to investigate and then came back without any luck.
The police showed up, I gave them a quick re-cap. The funny irony here: on my way into town going up Fort St, likely this same paddy wagon used its lights to make sure it could do a right turn to get onto Fort Street (then promptly turned off the lights-- like they were responding to a 40 ft. long emergency). If the variables had been played around with, the crackpot could have slammed on the paddy wagon, then they would have arrested him.

Resuming my errands, we stopped into the Alpine Florist on Blanshard Street. I noticed that their outside security camera was aimed the same direction that we took in following the wacko. I asked the clerk and they confirmed that they had videotape of the street. I called the police to let them know this: basically, look for grey haired guy in a navy jacket followed by a fat-ass with a little girl (see right). Will they follow this up? Who knows. Anything could happen-- even a thorough investigation.