A Kamloops robber who held up a downtown shoe store last fall hid some of the cash he stole inside his backside.
That’s what a judge was told on Friday as Ronald Anthony Kuz, 70, was sentenced on robbery charges stemming from an incident on Victoria Street in October.
Mounties were called to Red Wing Shoes, 237 Victoria St., at about 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 22 for a report of a hold up.
The clerk working in the store told investigators a man walked in and pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket.
Crown prosecutor Tim Livingston described the weapon as “a revolver-like firearm.”
“He demanded all the money — bills only,” Livingston said.
“Mr. Kuz then left and [the employee] locked the door and called police.”
The gun turned out to be an imitation firearm, but Livingston said video surveillance footage from the store shows that it appeared to be authentic.
“And as a result of that video, [police] determined that the offender was Mr. Kuz and he was arrested the following day with two $100 bills found in his buttocks,” he said.
Livingston said the clerk in the store experienced anxiety following the robbery.
“As far as she was concerned, it was a real gun pointing at her,” he said.
“She doesn’t know any better in that moment and I can only suggest, your honour, that would be terrifying.”
Defence lawyer Cameron Johnson said Kuz is addicted to drugs and was being “forced to pay back some CERB money” at the time of the robbery.
“In any event, he had some debts and he needed money in a hurry, and he made a fateful decision to go and get a toy gun and subject [the clerk] to the robbery,” he said.
Kuz asked for a two-year sentence — longer than he might have otherwise received — to allow him to make use of programming available to offenders inside federal penitentiaries.
Provincial court Judge Raymond Sheard sentenced Kuz to two years in prison. He was also ordered to submit a sample of his DNA to a national criminal database and handed a lifetime firearms prohibition.
