A 32-year-old Surrey man who violently mugged six women in May including two in North Vancouver has been sent to jail for 22 months.
Joon Woo Lim was sentenced in Port Coquitlam provincial court by Judge David St. Pierre June 30 after pleading guilty to four charges of robbery and two charges of attempted robbery.
Most of the muggings all took place within hours of one another on May 5.
Lims spree of attacks started early that day, when a woman working at a Surrey coffee shop was attacked and robbed by a man with a crowbar shortly after 5:40 a.m.
Police in North Vancouver were alerted about an hour later when someone pushed a young woman who was walking to a bus stop near the intersection of Mountain Highway and East 27th Street was threatened with a knife and pushed to the ground. The attacker stole her backpack before climbing into a car and fleeing.
Two hours later, another young woman who was walking to work was assaulted by a man wearing a bandana who hit her with a blunt object near 1300 Riverside Drive before taking off in a vehicle.
Later the same morning, an elderly woman was attacked, knocked to the ground and robbed of her purse near Patricia Avenue and Hastings Street in Coquitlam. The victim in that attack required stitches to close a wound in her head. Again the suspect left in a car.
At around 10 p.m. the same day, a man rear-ended another woman as she drove on Lansdowne Drive in Coquitlam with a child in the back seat of her car. When she got out to inspect the damage, he assaulted her with a hammer and tried to steal the car. Luckily, nearby residents run over to help her.
The next day, Lim attacked another woman and stole her purse as she was standing with her baby on a Vancouver sidewalk.
Using information provided by the victims and other witnesses, police eventually tracked Lim and arrested him in Surrey later that day.
In addition to the jail term, Lim was ordered to serve three years probation, including completing a drug treatment program. He was also banned from using drugs and alcohol and from attending all gambling establishments.
jseyd@nsnews.com
