What began as a normal morning at work quickly turned into a nightmare for a downtown Vancouver smoke shop employee last Friday.
Twenty-one-year-old Syed Razee Uddin Ahmed says he was doing some cleaning when two masked men barged into the Smoke and Food Shop on Smithe Street at roughly 9:40 a.m. on March 10.
“Two robbers came in, one with a knife, one with a duffle bag,” Ahmed told CTV News.
Video of the incident, which was captured on the store's surveillance cameras, shows a man with a knife leading Ahmed towards the till before forcing him down to the ground.
“The one with the knife placed it towards my stomach and told me if I don’t follow his orders he’ll stab me,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed says the man with the knife took all the cash from the till while the other man filled his bag with $7,000 worth of merchandise before taking off.
“I thought, 'Is this the end?'” Ahmed said. “All my future, everything is at stake, I could have died at that moment."
Ahmed, who’s an international student from India, says he no longer feels the city is safe.
“Anyone can come here anytime,” he said. “Even these robbers in broad daylight in the morning, everyone was outside … I’m not feeling safe."
The store's manager told CTV News that prior to this incident, the shop had been broken into four times in the last six months.
Ahmed says he’s now rethinking his decision to live in Vancouver and is telling others to proceed with caution before doing the same.
“No one is safe here,” he said.
Ahmed says he notified the Vancouver Police Department.
A VPD spokesperson confirmed Saturday that police are investigating the robbery, but was unable to provide any additional information about the investigation.
