TORONTO (WSVN) — A man dressed in a Spider-Man costume actually saved the day when he helped stop a shoplifter.
Spider-Man may be Peter Parker (or Miles Morales) in the comics, but in real-life Toronto, he goes by Mark Zilio.
“I’m Toronto’s Spider-Man. I’ve been working in the core of Downtown Toronto for the last four years as a busker and street performer,” Zilio said.
Zilio was performing outside of a costume shop on Monday when he actually had to fight crime. “Oddly enough on Halloween, the one day when there’s the most Spider-Men around, not just me, is the day when I wind up stopping a crime,” he said.
Cellphone video shows Zilio, in full costume, helping stop a suspected shoplifter.
“She was very squirmy, squiggled her way out,” he said. “I was working here on the sidewalk. I never want to become involved in these types of things. I don’t want to lose my busking license. I’m not trained to handle someone while they’re hostile or needing to be held down.”
Store manager Sanjoy Kandu said he was both impressed and entertained. “Spidey, come on, it’s a great thing,” he said. “Peter Parker helping out as security guard at that moment, it was great.”
However, Zilio said his brush with crime-fighting will also be his last. “With great power comes great responsibility. It is my responsibility to encourage the fact of, yes, there are licensed street performers around often, in superhero costume, but no, we do not often intervene and fight crime,” he said.
Workers say the woman actually bought a costume but grabbed something else when she was leaving the store. Security tried to stop her, but when she broke free, Spider-Man was there.
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