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Man doused with hot coffee says Burnaby's Metrotown ‘increasingly unsafe’

"In light of the recent incidents around here, I feel like it's important for the public to know this and to be vigilant," says the victim of a recent confrontation.
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A Burnaby man is speaking out about how the Metrotown area of the city has become “increasingly unsafe” after someone poured scalding-hot coffee poured all over him. Contributed photo

A Burnaby man is speaking out about how the Metrotown area of the city has become “increasingly unsafe” after someone poured scalding-hot coffee poured all over him.

Mike (Burnaby NOW has agreed to keep his last name private) bought coffee at an outlet at the corner of Willingdon Avenue and Kingsway on Wednesday.

“I got my order and walked out of the gas station and proceeded to walk on Kingsway towards the Willingdon intersection,” Mike said. “All of a sudden, I felt hot liquid on my head, then my face, back, shirt and hoodie I was wearing, and sweat pants became soaked. It became apparent to me that someone poured coffee right over my head from behind. I turned around and saw this man.”

The man was around five-foot-five-inches tall, said Mike, wearing glasses, a hoodie and sweatpants.

“I don’t know him and never met him before,” said Mike. “He made a snarky ‘oops’ remark and I immediately shouted: ‘Stop, why did you do that?’”

metrotown coffee burnaby safety
A Burnaby man is speaking out about how the Metrotown area of the city has become “increasingly unsafe” after someone poured scalding-hot coffee poured all over him. Contributed photo

The man then backed up and ran away as Mike kept yelling for him to stop.

Mike called 911 and gave a statement to Burnaby RCMP.

“I am not sure if this person was emotionally unstable or not, but the fact is no one should be doing things like this,” Mike said.“My concerns about this is that I feel as a Burnaby resident from Metrotown that this area is getting increasingly unsafe. In light of the recent incidents around here, I feel like it's important for the public to know this and to be vigilant. I can imagine if this happened to someone who doesn't speak English or senior, this could be devastating and they wouldn't know what to do. I just thought I would share this to increase awareness.”

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