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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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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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