NV cabbie helps

with capture of
robbery suspect

31-year-old man wanted
on Canada-wide warrant

A COOL-HEADED cabbie found himself in a hot situa-
tion Wednesday when he inadveriently became a getaway

diver for

a suspected armed

robber wanted on a

Canada-wide warrant for parole violation.

A clever move on the part of
North Shore taxi driver Buz Reid,
33, resulted in the arrest of 31-
year-old Brent Easton.

Reid picked up Easton at the
North Vancouver Keg restaurant
at’ approximately 2:40 p.m. His
passenger asked him to drive up
Lonsdale Avenue.

Said Reid, ‘tHe didn’t really
seem to know where he was going.
We circled some back alleys while
he pretended to find somebody.
And then he just had me wait in a
parking lot right in front of the
100-black West 14th Street.”

By Michael Becker
News Reporter

By about 3:45 p.m., the Van-
couver Police swooped in on the
taxi in the 1100-block of Main
Street.

Said Reid, ‘lt was straight out
of the movies. There must have
been about 10 cars and everybody
nad their pistols drawn. Bull
horns are going and they're
screaming at me to get out of the
way. They talked him very slowly

44] just sort of put two and
two together and realized
that I was in trouble. 99

Reid sat and read a book for 10
minutes,

“And then he comes flying
back at about 900 miles an hour,
full run, jumps into the back seat
and scrunches down. I thought,
OK, this guy is a little strange, but
I'm still not clicking on any-
thing,’’ he said.

While Reid read, a nearby store
was held up by a man claiming he
had a gun.

. Reid’s passenger asked to go to
Vancouver.

After the North Vancouver
RCMP alerted the taxi company
to be on the lookout for the rob-
bery suspect, Reid’s dispatcher
broadcast a radio code indicating
trouble.

“‘T just sort of put two and two
together and realized that | was in
trouble,” Reid said.

The driver left his radio
microphone in the ‘‘on’’ position.
His dispatcher, Colin Jackson,
listened as Reid took directions
from his passenger. ‘‘Because he
didn’t know where he was going I
could sort of ask him. We were
wandering around all over the ci-
ty,’ Reid said.

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Weather

Monday and Tuesday, cloudy
with showers. Highs 6°C, lows

orc.

Second Ctass Registration Number 3885.

—Cab Driver Buz Reid

out of the car. They were very
professional.”’

The police found the suspect
was carrying a knife.

Meanwhile Reid praised the ac-
tion of the North Shore Taxi
dispatch staff.

“They did a wonderful job of
figuring out what | was trying to
teli them without telling them
anything,’’ he said.

Said Jackson of Reid’s handling
of the situation, ‘‘It was an ex-
cellent move on his part and I'm
glad that { clued in to what he
was doing. I was sort of the left
hand to his right hand.’’

Easton was charged Thursday in
North Vancouver with armed
robbery.

Company eyes foreign
ship repair contracts

NORTH VANCOUVER-based Vancouver Shipyards Co.
Ltd. has leased a $7-million floating dry uock that a com-
pany Official said could attract foreign ship repair business

to the Port of Vancouver.

‘Yom Ward, Vancouver Ship-
yards” general manager, said the
company recently leased the Arctic
Kibvayok floating dry dock from
Calgary-based Arctic Transporta-
tion Ltd.

The dry dock, capable of lifting
a 9,500-tonne vessel, has been in
Vancouver for the past year at
West Coast Manley Shipyards.
Prior to that it was based in the
Arctic.

The drv dock was built in Japan
in 1983,

While Ward declined to divulge
the cost of leasing the dry dock,
he said Vancouver Shipyards will
lease it ‘‘for several years’? and
may choose to purchase the dock
in the future.

“It’s a middle-sized dock that
we'll be using on middle-sized
vessels. It would suit such vessels

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

as the Polish deep-sea fishing
vessels that are currently in the
port,’’ said Ward. ‘‘The
economics of docking a middle-
sized vessel at the much larger
Panamax floating dry dock (cur-
rently at Versatile Pacific Ship-
yards Inc. in North Vancouver) is
not very attractive because of the
large use of electricity.”

Tie Arctic Kibvayok is a sub-
mersible barge intended to serve
primarily as a floating dry dock.

“I think it will be a major part
of our operations. I don’t know if
it will create any new jobs, but it
will keep people in their existing
jobs,’’ said Ward. ‘With the

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~

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NEWS photo Cindy ‘Googman

A BOMB threat called into ICBC headquarters in North Vancouver resulted in the evacuation of
1,200 ICBC empioyees Thursday afternoon. The caller claimed a bomb would explode at 3:17
p.m, Emergency crews checked the building at approximately 3:30 p.m. and found nothing. Staff
returned to the building by 4:15 p.m.

Photo submitted

NORTH VANCOUVER-based Vancouver Shipyards Co. Ltd. has
leased the $7-million Arctic Kibvayok floating dry dock trom Arc-
tic Transportation Ltd. The shipyard plans to use the facility to
repair mid-sized vessels. Eefore coming to Vancouver, the dry
dock was based in the Arctic where it repaired such vessels as
the Cornelis Zanen.

States, we expect to make some
inroads into the U.S. (ship repair)
market.”’

changes in tariff structures and a
phasing out of the ship repair tax
between Canada and the United