A man wearing a mask robbed a pawn shop in Maple Ridge Tuesday evening.
The man entered Common Exchange Pawn Brokers on Lougheed Highway near 224th Street around 4:45 p.m.
He pepper sprayed one employee in the face and smashed a glass display unit to steal jewelry from within.
Vic Howes was shopping for tools inside the pawn shop when the thief burst in.
Howes grabbed two drill motors and used them to hit at the thief, who was most likely injured in his head.
“I got him square in the back with one,” said Howes.
The thief tried to pepper spray Howes who managed to hit him on the head before he fled.
The Maple Ridge fire department tended to the store employees and customers who were pepper sprayed while Ridge Meadows RCMP began a search for the suspect.
The suspect is described as being 5-6 to 5-8. He was wearing a black mask, a dark blue hooded sweatshirt, black jogging pants and white running shoes.
- With files from Colleen Flanagan