NORMANDY PARK, Wash. — A Normandy Park vape shop was the victim of a consistent trend in western Washington early Monday morning, as suspects crashed a vehicle into the business and burglarized it.
Police say around 2:40 a.m. Monday, Tobacco Studio and Vape had a vehicle rammed into it. "As many as" 11 suspects entered the business and stole assorted products before eventually fleeing in two separate vehicles.
Police say the vehicle used to crash into the business was reported stolen out of Seattle.
The owner told KING 5 at the scene that vape, cigarette and CBD products were stolen by the suspects. They believe the total amount stolen was worth roughly $30,000.
The suspects were in the store for about 4 minutes, the owner said, and had fled the scene only about a minute before police arrived. The front entrance and security gate of the business will cost about $40,000 to fix, the owner told KING 5.
Just in the past month, KING 5 has covered pot shop or vape shop crash-and-grabs in Mountlake Terrace, Seattle, Redmond and Issaquah. These crimes almost always follow a common theme: a stolen vehicle is used to crash into the business, allowing suspects to enter and gather up as much product as they can before fleeing in other vehicles.
Like with this latest incident, suspects are often in and out of the shops within 5 minutes and are gone by the time police arrive.
State lawmakers tried to pass legislation that would curtail these types of crimes, but were unable to get anything to the Governor's desk.
"I'm pretty frustrated. We had several initiatives underway for this session of the legislature, but none of them really succeeded," said Sen. Karen Keiser, (D-33rd).
Keiser co-sponsored Senate Bill 6133 which was sponsored by Sen. Jim McCune. The bill would have added an extra year of jail time for someone convicted of robbing a pot shop in a crash-and-grab. It would also require those businesses to report robberies or attempted robberies to the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board.
The board can't track how often robberies or attempted robberies are happening because reporting isn't required.
The bill passed the Senate unanimously, but failed in the House.