SEATTLE — A pot shop in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood was the latest to be victimized by a crash-and-grab burglary early Thursday morning.
American Mary, on NE 45th Street, had workers putting up plywood over damage caused after a Hyundai sedan was driven into the business.
The Seattle Police Department (SPD) confirmed that it responded to a commercial burglary report at the business. Suspects had used the car to ram into the pot shop and had gone inside and stolen merchandise.
Nathan Scott, an employee at American Mary, said he was robbed at gunpoint when he first started working at the pot shop over a year ago. He also spoke about a different incident where an overnight burglary had taken place, and he had to clean up glass for hours.
This has become an all-too-familiar trend in western Washington of late. On Nov. 21, a Have a Heart pot shop location in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle saw a nearly identical burglary. A car was used to ram into the business at around 2 a.m. when suspects went in and stole products before fleeing the scene.
A store executive told KING 5 that out of Have A Heart's five locations around the region, they have seen three burglaries just in the past 10 days.
"Anything that we put on our building will not stop them, these are steel doors, this is not like a building with a glass front every time this happens I'm devastated, and I'm tired of waking up in the middle of the night," said Diane Walter, Vice President at Have a Heart.
Earlier this month, KING 5 spoke with the owners of a Renton vape shop that burglars hit two nights in a row.
The vehicle used to ram the business in Thursday morning's burglary was left at the scene and towed. It is unclear at this time how many suspects were involved or how they got away.