A man is in critical condition after he tried to tried to stop a pumpkin theft at a Quebec grocery store and got into an altercation with the alleged thief.
The incident took place at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday at an IGA grocery store in the Aylmer sector of Gatineau.
The man and his wife were finishing up a bike ride when they saw a pair of teens trying to steal a pumpkin from the parking lot of the grocery store.
"The 57-year-old man asked the kid to bring back the pumpkin…so the kid was really upset by the fact that man asked him to bring it back," Gatineau police Const. Pierre Lanthier told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview on Friday afternoon.
Lanthier said the teen confronted the man and an altercation ensued.
"Right now it's hard for us to say if he punched the man…or if he pushed him," said Lanthier.
"The man fell to the ground, hit his head and now he is in critical condition at the hospital."
The teens fled to a nearby McDonald's and have not yet been caught. Police believe they are both about 19 years old and they speak French.
Lanthier said police will try to obtain surveillance video from the restaurant in hopes of identifying the teens involved.
Anyone with information for investigators is asked to call investigators at (819)243-2345, x7569.
