‘Put the bag down, bro’: NHL player thwarts thief during Vancouver robbery 

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — It’s not often an NHL player steps in to break up a robbery, but that’s what happened in Vancouver on Sunday.

Sgt. Aaron Roed with the Vancouver Police Department says Ottawa Senators defenseman Mark Borowiecki stepped in after someone smashed a car window in Gastown, then tried to steal a purse inside.

“As he was trying to get away, he wrestled the bag away from the thief, who eventually did get away. But he was able to recover the property. We’re very thankful to Mark Borowiecki for stepping up and being there,” he says.

Some reports suggested Borowiecki clotheslined the suspect, who still hasn’t been found.

Borowiecki said Tuesday he had been doing some shopping in Gastown when he saw the man shatter a car window and take a hiking backpack out.


“I was like, ‘Put the bag down, bro,'” Borowiecki said, but the man didn’t comply and instead started swearing at the hockey player. “I started running towards him and he got on his bike, threw the bag on, and he took like three hard pedals towards me. I don’t know if he thought he was just going to ram me or I was going to jump out of the way.”

Borowiecki says he was holding baby things he’d just purchased in a nearby shop in one of his hands.

“So I just kind of hooked my left arm under his arm and like pulled him off the bike to the ground,” adding he did it as gently as he could, and then held the man down.

“I was waiting [to see] – if he was going to pull something sharp, I was going to drop my baby supplies and crack him one, but he just kind of got on his bike and went away.”

The bag was returned to the owners, who are tourists visiting the city.

Despite the positive outcome, Roed does not recommend taking matters into your own hands if you see a crime in progress.

Police are asking anyone with information about what happened to contact the VPD non-emergency line.

Borowiecki, an Ottawa native, was drafted by the Senators 139th overall in 2008 and broke into the league with the club in 2011.

He has 10 goals, 43 points and 620 penalty minutes in 349 career NHL games, all with Ottawa.

Borowiecki, known to teammates as ‘BoroCop’, was named an alternate captain in September.

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