Justice with a side of chicken

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/02/2015 (3357 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One man bit off more than he could chew when he swiped a tip jar from Chicken Chef in Steinbach. What the thief did not anticipate was a woman wearing an apron, brandishing a plate, fork and knife would be chasing him.

It was no ordinary shift for Angel Kuehn, 24, on Oct. 21, 2014.

She was dealing with a customer when she suddenly heard the tip jar move.

“I was just asking this gentleman here what he wanted to eat for dessert—he wanted the bread pudding,” she recalls. Then she heard the noise. She knew what was happening since a day earlier the tip jar was snatched. “I just left in the middle of his order and then ran after these guys out the door.”

There were two men. One bolted along the sidewalk, the other tried crossing Main Street. As she yelled, the thief happened to trip on his own two feet at the median.

“He tripped over the middle of the boulevard, money went flying,” said Kuehn. “Then there’s me and my plate, fork and knife still running after this guy.”

Instead of darting immediately, the mugger scrounged up a few coins and began scurrying away.

By this time, a citizen who was behind the wheel noticed something was up and bolted from his vehicle to chase the perpetrator. Kuehn, he and the man’s son pinned the suspect along the northern wall of Shoppers Drug Mart. The helper’s names were not known.

Kuehn ran back to the Chicken Chef to call the police.

The only thing Kuehn thought about as she began her pursuit was that somebody had to stop him.

“It happened once, now it’s happening again,” said the Steinbach resident. “It’s going to happen another time if nobody can get something done.”

Kuehn has some experience dealing with roughhousing. She used to work at La Broquerie Hotel where she sometimes had to deal with a few physical altercations.

Kuehn has since left her waitress job to work as a health care aid at Bethesda Hospital and Bethesda Place in Steinbach. She said the elderly residents she oversees enjoy this tale of vigilante justice.

“They love hearing this story and they’re just amazed that I can be such a loving and caring person, but watch out for her, she’s a cop by night.”

It was quite the entertainment for the gentleman she served that evening, too. The same fellow who suddenly saw her waitress cut loose in the middle of his dessert order.

“He made the comment that it was a dinner and a show,” she laughed.

Timothy Gerhard Sager plead guilty late last month to theft under $5,000 in Steinbach provincial court. Sager will be on probation for one year and must not enter or linger around the diner.