Thief steals from cash registers at two Montreal shops in less than 20 minutes

At least two Montreal shop owners in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough are claiming a thief made off with their cash registers while staff were distracted.

On Boxing Day, the Espace Skins spa on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, as well as the Katrin Leblond Design boutique on Fairmont Avenue, said a man entered their establishments, asked for an “order” in the back, and made off with the cash register while a staff member was looking for the product.

Katrin Leblond said at her store, the thief made off with $750 in $50s and $20s, and was gone by the time her staff member returned.

“A guy walked in and said that he wanted to pick up an order for his wife ‘Christine’ or his mom ‘Christine,’” said Leblond, describing him as a man in his 40s, weighing about 200 pounds. “My staff went to the back to look for the order for a minute and came back, and our cash had been emptied... It’s been a really disappointing day, week, month.”

When Leblond saw surveillance footage posted online from nearby Espace Skins, she said she noticed that the time stamp was 20 minutes after the man left her store.

“I just want all my fellow merchants in the neighbourhood to know to watch out for scammers right now, especially when we are all short-staffed and trying to take a much-needed break,” she said.

Montreal police (SPVM) confirmed that a robbery at Espace Skins was reported just before 5 p.m. on Dec. 26, and that an investigation is ongoing.

Leblond said she also plans to file a report with Montreal police.

Vanessa Nkamicaniye was working at Espace Skins that day and said the man approached the register and saw where the cash register was when he asked for change for parking.

“Afterwards, I think about like, five to six to 10 minutes after I made everybody pay, he came back to me while he was still in the clinic, and told me that he had placed an order online for a few perfumes,” said Nkamicaniye. “He gave me the brand of perfumes that we have here, which is this, I think, one of the only brands that we have here, and then that’s when I was like, Oh, he probably has an order.”

When Nkamicaniye went to the back, the surveillance video shows the man saying, “thank you sweetie,” waiting a few moments and then grabbing the register and heading for the door.

“I’ll punch you out,” the man is heard saying before leaving as a staff member chases him to the door.

Nkamicaniye said the man made off with around $1,600, adding that the adrenaline helped them make it through the rest of the day.

“Afterwards, I kind of had to sit with everything that had happened. I felt duped,” they said. “I felt like, you know, it’s my fault, or, you know, I felt like I was lied to. It was very hard to kind of get past that.”

They said a therapy session helped them remember the ordeal.

“It was quite intense,” they said, adding that after the robbery, they are more alert at work.

“When I would have more than three people inside the clinic, I felt the tension, like I felt more on edge, or more aware of everybody who’s at the clinic, making sure that I remember faces, that I remember small details like that, which I did not have before.”

At the boutique around the corner from Skins, Leblond said her employee was in the back looking for the order for about a minute when the man made off with their register.

She added that since posting about the robbery, she has received an outpouring of love and support from the community, including messages, snacks and “lots of orders.”

“What was stolen came back threefold,” she said. “We will be OK in the end, and not just because we’re strong, but because we’re being lifted up and encouraged to keep making art.”