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Jennifer Burnside was working at Padmore’s Quick Shop in Chilliwack, B.C., on Monday night when a man came in wearing a mask.
“I asked him to remove it,” she said.
“And he wouldn’t. I knew something was up with that and I seemed to recognize him as well and so, after arguing, I just conceded I wanted him out of the store… when I had my back turned he pulled out a weapon, like a gun, and asked me to empty the till.”
Burnside said she was shocked to see the weapon and she jumped back.
“But then I told him no, it wasn’t happening,” she said.
Burnside said the family that owns the business works really hard and she didn’t want to just hand over the money.
“So I thought I’d call his bluff.”
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The Upper Fraser Valley RCMP said that on May 4, just before 9 p.m., police received a report of an alleged armed robbery on Menzies Street in Chilliwack.
“They responded immediately and upon arrival, the suspect was no longer on scene,” Cpl. Carmen Kiener, media relations officer for the Upper Fraser Valley RCMP, told Global News.
“But we did confirm that the victim, or the employee of the store, was safe and unharmed.”
Kiener said that at this time, there are no suspects and no one is in custody, but they are urging anyone to come forward with any information.
“We take these incidents very seriously, and we are treating it very seriously to hopefully try and identify the person responsible,” she added.
Callie Ward is a lash tech who works nearby and told Global News that hearing about the attempted robbery was unsettling.
“The area down here has definitely changed in the last year or so,” she said.
“But nothing like that has happened.”
Burnside said she mentally prepares herself every day that there might be violence at her place of work.
“I’m probably supposed to say that you should comply, but it’s their own choice in the spur of the moment,” she said of how others should act in her position. “I wasn’t afraid, I was shocked, at the cheek of it.
“He didn’t even get the tip jar.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
