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Abbotsford bank ATM robbery thwarted by woman standing her ground

Police arrest alleged known robber running down South Fraser wearing balaclava
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Scott Kuebeck is shown here during his Jan. 1, 2017 arrest in Abbotsford. He was sentenced for nine robberies in Abbotsford and Chilliwack in 2017, but released in December, 2019. KAM Productions photo.

An attempted robbery at an Abbotsford bank ATM was thwarted after a woman stood her ground against a man with a knife.

Abbotsford Police Sgt. Judy Bird said that on Thursday just before 6 p.m., a man followed a woman who intended to deposit a check into a bank on the 3300 block of South Fraser Way.

The man claimed he had a knife and demanded money, and the woman told him she didn’t have any, Bird said.

“He said if she didn’t give him the purse, he would stab her,” Bird said. “She said, ‘I’m not giving you my purse.’”

Deterred after looking at the bank cameras, the culprit took off running down South Fraser Way.

“At 5:56 p.m., police officers saw a man running down the street wearing dark-coloured clothing and a balaclava, so they stopped him.”

He did not resist arrest, according to Bird.

Scott Kuebeck, 32, has now been charged with robbery, disguising his face with intent to commit a crime and possessing a weapon for dangerous purposes.

Kuebeck was previously charged with 13 counts of robbery in 2017 and pleaded guilty to nine of them – six in Chilliwack and three in Abbotsford. He was sentenced in provincial court to four years in prison.

The Crown lawyer at the time, Christopher McPherson, said Kuebeck owed a large drug debt from his heroin addiction and people were after him to pay up.

In late 2018, Judge Jill Rounthwaite said, although Kuebeck’s crimes had caused significant psychological harm, his efforts to turn his life around in prison were commendable. Rounthwaite gave him three years’ credit for time served.

There was another attempted robbery –by another man claiming to have a knife – which occurred at a bank on at the same section of South Fraser Way on Wednesday. It’s unknown at this time whether the crimes are related.

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