SEATTLE — A Seattle pot shop says it is closed after a driver crashed through its front door and took away merchandise.
The plywood on the walls could double as a “closed” sign for American Mary, a pot shop in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood.
“With just a few more hours of auditing, we've lost tens of thousands of dollars in revenue over the past two to three months while the repairs were made,” store manager Stephen Haley said.
Haley said this is the fourth time in eight months that someone has used a car to drive through a wall, grab a fully loaded arm and drive off.
“It's frustrating. It seems like it's never-ending,” Haley said.
This video, taken last September, shows a similar MO robbery ramming an SUV in front of Seattle's Dockside Cannabis store, leaving the car abandoned by the time police got there. The robbers were long gone.
The break-ins are happening so frequently that lawmakers are trying to fix them. A bill proposed this Congress that would increase penalties for people who use a vehicle to break into a licensed pot shop is still in committee.
“I think anything is a step in the right direction, but I don't think it's enough of a deterrent. It's hard to catch the people who are doing this, and it's going to be hard to catch the people who are doing this, and it's going to be a year or two before they really scare society. 'I don't think I can do it.' The people who are doing it,' Haley said.
For now, all they can do is clean up and board up. They plan to reopen, but said it will take several weeks and thousands of dollars to reopen.
