Robbers in Vancouver hit Chinese herb shop
Last Updated: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 | 7:42 PM PT
CBC News
This store retails Chinese medicinal herbs, which can be precious commodities these days. (CBC)Police are investigating a brazen robbery in Vancouver that may be connected to rising prices caused by Chinese floods.
Three men walked in to the Chinese Herbal Medicine Store on East 41st Avenue on Tuesday and pepper-sprayed the owner, police said.
Police said the men then stole some herbal and other medicines from jars behind the counter worth more than $40,000.
Among the items taken was a fungus called cordyceps, a popular Chinese cure-all.
Recent flash floods and landslides in southern China are destroying fields where cordyceps are traditionally harvested, according to Sonny Lee, a doctor of Chinese medicine.
"These things become rare," Lee said. "They're harder to get and [the] price goes up more."
Vancouver police said they were exchanging information with the RCMP about a similar incident in Richmond in July.
No arrests have been made.
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