Former resident helps nab thief

Split-second thinking–combined with a huge adrenaline rush and long, fake fingernails–helped Billy-Jean McKee, 18, nab a thief last week, bringing him to the ground at the Kildonan Place Mall where she worked before onlookers and mall security took over.
McKee, a former Fort Frances resident now living in Winnipeg, stands just five feet tall and suffers ill-health stemming from juvenile diabetes.
But nothing was a hindrance when she saw the man steal a bank deposit bag from an elderly woman and grab another mall employee as he ran out the door.
“My store manager and I were doing our bank deposit and as we were walking out, I heard a woman scream ‘No, no!’” McKee recalled yesterday afternoon.
“I saw him grab her deposit bag . . . he ran for other doors but didn’t realize they were locked and then plowed into me as he ran [outside].
“I ducked and grabbed the deposit bag as he pushed me through the doors,” she said.
“I had a hold of the corner of the bag with the money in it, and he realized I had a better grip and let go,” she added. “But then my other friend was in his way so he picked her up and put her over his shoulder.
“I said to him, ‘Take [the money] and run but put her down,’” McKee noted. “But he didn’t so I jumped on his back and dug the big, long nails I was wearing into his throat.
“He couldn’t breathe and we dropped to the ground and other people started piling on top of us, and then security came,” she related.
All of McKee’s fake nails broke off in the scuffle, and she suffered a few bruises and scrapes. But the teen said she’d do it all again if she happened upon somebody in trouble.
“It was a totally selfless act–extraordinary,” said McKee’s proud aunt, Colleen Taylor of Bear’s Pass. “She did not think twice about it.
“If it had been me, I would have just stood there and yelled ‘Somebody stop him!’” Taylor admitted.
“Her mom told me [Billy-Jean] isn’t watching any more action movies,” she chuckled.