It was a busy Wednesday afternoon for Coquitlam Mounties, who responded to a bank robbery and a gun call within an hour of each other in Port Coquitlam.
At 3 p.m., a man robbed the VanCity branch on Ottawa Street after showing the handle of a gun to a teller; he took off with an undisclosed amount of cash.
The Mounties' Air 1 helicopter, dog unit, robbery unit and general duty members converged on the area but were unable to locate the suspect, who is described as a 25-year-old Caucasian man with light skin and blonde hair, just under six feet tall with an average build. He was wearing a blue baseball cap and a grey hoodie. Anyone with information is asked to call Coquitlam RCMP at 604-945-1550 and quote file #2011-34189.
Less than an hour later, two teenagers were arrested after being caught with a pellet gun in downtown PoCo.
Shortly before 4 p.m., a 911 caller reported seeing a man holding up a gun in the 2600-block of Shaughnessy Street, near Elgin Avenue. When Mounties arrived, they found a man matching the description, along with another young man. They were arrested for possession of a weapon and later released without being charged.
"One of the males told members that he has a pellet pistol in his backpack," said Cpl. Jamie Chung.
"We take this kind of call very seriously because no one can tell if it's really a pellet gun," Chung said. "We always err on the side of caution and we go to the scene with the mindset we are going to a gun call. It potentially could have been very tragic.
"Luckily this time, no one got hurt and I hope they learned a good lesson."
