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5 more crimes you (probably) didn't know about in Vancouver

From legless pant-thief and to a strange courtroom defense
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From a legless man stealing pants, to a bogus sex-crime investigator, to bus pass forger interviewed by student reporters, to a weird defense of robbery, Vancouver has seen some unusual crimes. Reference code: AM54-S4-1-A-30-: A-30-69

Crime is a broad issue in society, ranging from serious, life-changing incidents to less dramatic (though also impactful) scams.

And Vancouver, like any major city, has more unusual cases.

Here are five of them.

1. Legless man steals pants

In the early 2000s, West Vancouver briefly made international headlines when an unexpected theft took place.

A legless man made off with clothing from a local Gap. What was notable was what he took; he allegedly stole six jackets and 10 pairs of pants.

According to witness reports, a wheelchair-bound man with no legs fled the Gap with the clothing before getting into a stolen vehicle.

"Several witnesses got a good look at the man and are confident he genuinely had no legs and was not simply faking it," reads a Times Colonist article from Dec. 28, 2001.

2. He claimed he was innocent because he was busy robbing a different store

This one is not so much crime as the follow-up to a crime.

Dennis Lemieux tried an unusual technique in a Vancouver courtroom in 1980.

He'd been accused of robbing a Vancouver drug store. In his defence, he argued he couldn't have been at that drugstore because he was in Coquitlam robbing a different store earlier in the day and couldn't have made it to the Vancouver store in time.

The defence didn't work, as police timed a route that showed both robberies were possible on that schedule.

He ended up convicted of both robberies.

3. A bogus sex-crime investigation leads to a real investigation

In 2004 it was reported that police were investigating after multiple women reported a man who duped them into having sex with him.

In each case the women met the man, were charmed by him, and then were convinced to have sex with him in an effort to help him solve a crime.

He would tell them that he was investigating sex crimes and convince them to help him. The "help" was recreating "sex acts" of what he told them had happened so he would be better able to solve the crimes, according to an article in the Times Colonist.

To help with the ruse, he rented nice hotel rooms, dressed nicely, and claimed he worked for a prestigious investigations firm. Charmed, the women would consensually take part in the bogus investigation, reads the article.

At the time, police did not have enough evidence to charge him.

4. Investigators get break after forger is interviewed by student newspaper

For months in 1985, the Vancouver bus system was dealing with forged bus passes circulating around Vancouver.

While some bus drivers were catching them, it wasn't clear where they were coming from.

Until a person who claimed to be the forger was interviewed by the Langara student newspaper. 

The interview came about after the possible forger offered to sell forged bus passes to student reporters at Langara. She identified herself as a first-year student named Cathy.

She claimed she was selling about eight per day for between $10 and $15. That works out to between $200 and $300 per day in 2025.

5. An engraver was kidnapped after men, inspired by films, wanted to become forgers

A local engraver, Ernest Conduit, had a harrowing ordeal when two brothers kidnapped him and held him in a Dunbar home for a week in 1949.

He was targeted because the brothers, inspired by movies and books, decided they would try to make counterfeit money.

To do so, they decided to kidnap an engraver to make a plate to make bogus $20 bills.

Conduit was chained to a bed for a week before neighbours became suspicious of what was happening at the house and called the police. Paul Pankowe was caught in Vancouver and sentenced to two years in the case, while his brother William fled.