VPD says it's all Gucci after thwarting break-in at luxury shop

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Vancouver police say they’ve just protected a luxury retailer from yet another would-be theft.

According to VPD, they arrested the alleged thief around 7 am on Sunday morning. A witness had seen someone suspicious outside the high-end retailer near Thurlow and Alberni streets and called 9-1-1 to report it.

Sergeant Steve Addison said in a release that “police were patrolling close by and arrived on scene just as the suspect pried back a piece of plywood from a previous break-in.”

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“The thief entered the store and went inside, but when he tried to leave with the stolen merchandise, he was arrested by officers who had surrounded the building,” said Addison.

Now, 37-year-old Taylor Marchuk has been charged with break and enter and possession of a break-in instrument.

Police confirmed that the Gucci had been “targeted numerous times by thieves in recent weeks, including a December 9 robbery in which several people were pepper sprayed.”

The Gucci store in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver is a huge target for crime in the city. Just in December, robbers made off with $25,000 worth of product.

“Commercial break-ins, robberies, and vandalism are unfortunately happening throughout the downtown core, and many businesses have been hit a number of times,” Addison told Daily Hive.

“Much of the property stolen from stores in the downtown core winds up being sold in the Downtown Eastside or in online forums like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace,” he said, noting that high-end retailers like Gucci are often targeted because of the high resale value of the stolen goods.

Daily Hive has reached out to Gucci for more information and will update this story.

With files from Daily Hive Staff