Kelowna

Two men stopping for a break at a gas station on Highway 97 found out the hard way that if you dress like a criminal, people will think you're a criminal.

And now one of those two has been arrested because of it.

Photo: Grant Scott

The Kelonwa RCMP speak to witnesses after responding to a report of an armed robbery in progress on Highway 97 near Sexsmith Rd.

The Kelowna RCMP responded to what they considered to be a priority call when a witness noticed a man with his face covered by a bandana walk into the Esso station at 3650 Highway 97 North around noon on Monday.

"The guys pulled up and one asked for an outside bathroom and I said 'no I don't know where there is one' so he asked if his friend could clean up in here," says Bart Baaten, who was working behind the counter at the time.

As they were cleaning up, Baaten went back to his duties.

"After about 10 minutes I got a call from the police saying there was suspicious activity and about a minute later seven police cars showed up and took them out of the washroom."

Baaten added that he was never threatened by the two men.

RCMP Cst. Dave Gauthier says they responded quickly when the report came in.

"It was a possible robbery in progress where there was a fella going into the store with a bandana on his face. So we responded as if it was a priority robbery. When we got on scene we quickly realized that he had issues with his face," says Gauthier.

"The investigation proved that one of them did have a small amount of drugs on him so he was arrested."

The second man has been released.

"It ended up being a misunderstanding, but due to the fact that we responded the way we did, (drugs) were located," says Gauthier.