RENTON, Wash. — Resa Talarico and Vanessa McFarland, mother and daughter, own Elusive Mart and Vape in Renton.
Their Renton location was hit by burglars early Saturday and Sunday morning. The owners believe it was two different groups based on the surveillance video.
The owners said this last year has been the worst for the vape shop industry because of all the smash-and-grabs that have happened.
"They took the cash register and they took our Clover tipping machine and that was it," McFarland said of the Saturday morning break-in. "They broke some glass on the way out."
The Sunday morning break-in, however, caused significant damage beyond the burglars stealing vape pens and other products.
"It's one thing to steal the product, break-in but when you're terrorizing the entire store, for what?" McFarland said. "We wouldn't be as mad if they had just stolen stuff."
Surveillance video captured the second group kicking in the glass of several display cases along with pushing over counters.
McFarland said it's going to cost $25,000 to fix their storefront. They expect to spend at least $10,000 more to replace all the stolen products and display cases.
"We're blessed financially to be able to do this, but I worry about the other vape shops that can't take a hit like thisT," McFarland said. "They might have to close."
KING 5 has reported on numerous smash-and-grabs throughout western Washington. Most follow the same M.O. A stolen car is crashed into a business. A group of burglars run in to steal vape pens and other products. Business owners are out thousands of dollars. It's not covered by insurance according to Talarico.
"There's no insurance," Talarico said. "They're not insuring you anymore because it's gotten so bad."
After Sunday's break-in, the owners said another group tried to come steal from them about two hours later. They had someone at the store who scared them off.
This troubling trend started after TikToks showed people how easy it is to steal Kias and Hyundais. KING 5 has reported extensively on that issue as well. Because of the videos being on social media, these vape shop owners believe the burglars are teenagers.
The owners said that factor makes this an even tougher issue to solve. McFarland said she has seen teens posting on social media about committing crimes and/or advertising they have vapes to sell.
"It's because they're underage," McFarland said. "They can't buy them if they wanted to, they come in here and steal them to flip them at school. You don't want to hurt a kid. We can't put yourselves in these situations to stay overnight, block the building overnight with a person because they all have guns, illegal guns and they will shoot at you."
If arrests are made, McFarland hopes it'll be a learning lesson.
"They need to go to jail longer than a weekend and their parents need to teach them something," McFarland said. "It's kind of crazy to have your kids out here roaming reckless."
McFarland and Talarico said Renton and the surrounding communities are small enough to where everyone is connected. They're certain someone will be able to identify the burglars in the surveillance video, but they aren't sure anything will be done to them.