There were tense moments inside a donair restaurant in B.C.’s Lower Mainland recently after a man barged behind the counter with a machete. The incident happened at Paradise Donair in New Westminster on the evening of April 26, while two women were preparing food for some waiting customers. “They were shaken,” said Ali Boyraz, the restaurant’s owner. “While this guy was cutting the meat with the machete he brought, my employees just squeezed behind him and ran outside.” The incident was previously reported by the New Westminster Police Department, but surveillance video provided by the business Wednesday offers a closer look at what transpired. The recording shows a suspect in a ski mask enter Paradise Donair while pointing his machete over the counter. He immediately approaches the vertical spits where the meat is roasting, and begins hacking at it with the weapon. The suspect then took off with what Boyraz estimated was a few pounds of stolen meat. “He even took a couple of sauces, like bottles,” the owner added. “He forgot to take pita bread though.” While the incident rattled workers – who were supported by victim services – Boyraz said weeks later, they now see some humour in what happened. A bystander helped out by calling 911, and responding officers located and arrested a suspect the same evening. New Westminster resident Sidney Reid Hayden has since been charged with robbery and possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose in connection with the incident. Boyraz said the remaining meat had to be discarded as a precaution, and the business was forced to close for the rest of the day. He estimated they lost about $1,500 in sales. But it could have turned out worse, he said, and it was the first time Paradise Donair has experienced an armed robbery since the year it opened, back in 1998. “They got away with $100 or something,” he said of the first robber. “That was it. After that, never.”
