Customers of the Fas Gas station in Thorsby Alta. say the owner was killed in the gas and dash incident that occurred there on Friday.
Timothy Bembridge — one of two customers who identified the owner as Joe — said that they were friends. He said Joe would often be lenient if he couldn’t afford the full price of the gas or a pack of cigarettes.
“I’m devastated,” said Bembridge on Saturday. “I’m going to miss him big time. I don’t wish that on my worst enemy, the way he went down, getting run over, over gas.”
Killed after trying to get driver’s attention
Police say a medium-sized white commercial cube van sped away from the Fas Gas station without paying for fuel when the fatality occurred around 3:45 p.m. on Friday.
As the vehicle was leaving, the 54-year-old employee was hit while trying to get the driver’s attention.
Police say the van was stolen and has not yet been located. It has “Middleton Flooring Ltd.” written on its front and side.
Bembridge said he stopped by the Fas Gas station about a half an hour before the incident. He only found out that Joe had died when he saw his friend’s body lying in the street not long after.
Bembridge said that Joe had children and a wife and was an avid golfer.
He also said Joe’s gas station had been broken into a handful of times before Friday’s incident.
‘He trusted everybody’
Bob Fedun was one of several people who put flowers at the scene of the crime Saturday.
Thorsby Fas Gas customer Bob Fedun left flowers at the scene of Friday’s gas and dash. (CBC)
Fedun, a regular customer, says Joe was a trusting person and only required customers visiting the small town business to pay inside for their gas.
“Unfortunately, he trusted everybody and the one time he probably shouldn’t have, he paid the penalty for it,” said Fedun.
Friday’s incident was not the only gas and dash police dealt with that day. Thorsby-Breton RCMP officers also responded to a call of a gas and dash in the Rimbey area involving a stolen school bus.