Robbed at knife point

Photo: Contributed

Georgette Johnson is still completely traumatized after she was held at knife point during a robbery at her Turtle Island Gallery on Cannery Lane.

Two men entered the store just after 5 p.m., Tuesday, the time when she is usually closing up shop however, Johnson was in her office, which is at the back of the gallery, up a few feet of stairs.

She says she saw the men put their hoods on and one suspect put a mask on while the other wore sunglasses and it was at this moment Johnson knew something wasn’t right.

“He told me this is a robbery and I have a knife, and we want everything,” says Johnson. “I asked him what do you want and he said all of your gold. That is what they were after."

Johnson says in her gallery she carries gold and silver jewelry hand carved by the coastal natives.

“He just tried to empty my jewelry case into a black back-pack, they were just scooping it in.”

The two suspects then took off out the front door, each headed in different directions. One suspect ran into the parking lot of Prospera Place, while the other went left.

“I went out into the parking lot and noticed there wasn’t anyone around, lots of cars in the parking lot. So I just started screaming ‘help me, help me, he has a bag of my jewelry, I’ve just been robbed’.”

A group of four men ran to Johnson’s aid tackling the one suspect and managing to retrieve the black back-pack. While the bag was returned to Johnson and the total tally hasn’t been completed she estimates there was more than $35,000 in jewelry stolen from her gallery.

She says despite the parking lot being full of cars she doesn’t feel completely safe at her gallery on Cannery Lane, and never really has.

“I have had theft over the 20 years, and a break-in about 15-years-ago, but nothing like this.”

However she says she feels like she’s being watched, she says she has issued complaints to the downtown association and the RCMP of people lurking around her store.

Johnson says the one suspect came to the back of the cashier’s desk and took her cordless phone, giving her the feeling the men must have scoped out the store.

“I wish there was more of a presence. That there was security watching. There is a lady next to me who has a little modelling class and photography store going on, and there is a fitness place, we are all women down here pretty much. It should feel safe but when something like this happens you don’t feel safe no matter who is there, I mean the parking lot was full of cars.”

Although Johnson is shaken by the experience she isn’t going to let it get her down and says she will re-open the gallery on Thursday.

As someone who's been in the community for more than 20 years and has even had celebrity visitors such as Bill Clinton in her Gallery, during his 2006 tour, she says she won’t be held prisoner by this experience.