LAKE FOREST PARK, Wash. — There is a crime that has become so common at pot shops that one store that fell victim has decided to make an image of the crime a permanent fixture on display for customers.
A new mural is up where a gaping hole once stood at Mr. Greens in Lake Forest Park.
"Our customers like the fact that we are making a little bit light of the thing. You can be angry and we were," said Co-owner Dan McTaggart.
McTaggart said that anger stems from a January night when a group of suspected teens used a stolen KIA and slammed into their business to steal merchandise.
"It took them four shots at it to get through, but they broke through the sheetrock," McTaggart said.
They stole around $4,000 worth of items but left more than $25,000 dollars in damage.
"It doesn't feel great that someone can come and destroy your property and there's not a whole lot we can do about it," McTaggart said.
Mr. Greens did decide to send a message with their KIA smash-and-grab mural.
"Hey, let's have a little fun with this thing and put the car back in the building," McTaggart said about the conversation with the muralist.
The artist also added an extra surprise to the mural. The license plate reads KIA Boyz after the so-called group of teens going around and committing crimes like this.
"He decided that would be a good thing to put on there," McTaggart laughed. "I gotta give him props for that, that's pretty funny."
They plan to leave the mural up for a few years and then maybe paint over it, but for now, it's grabbing people's attention.
"I would hope that they are running out of targets," McTaggart said about the criminals who do this to pot shops in the Pacific Northwest.