Tag Archives: robbery
Medical Marijuana Dispensary Reopens After Bear-Spray Robbery
Joe | Jan 08, 2013 | Comments 0
Boulder, Colorado’s Dandelion medical marijuana dispensary is back open after owners and staff members spent the weekend removing bear repellent from the walls and floors.
On Thursday a man arrived at the dispensary’s front door, posing as a delivery man. When the staff opened the door, the robber began spraying bear repellent at them. When employees ran outside to call police, the robber made off with about $ 9,000 in medical cannabis. He is still at large. The dispensary’s manager, Lauren Ginsberg, said there is a panic button at the front desk, but there was no time to push it.
“We’re looking at every possible option,” Ginsberg said when asked about increased security. “We have a very welcoming vibe, but we will be setting boundaries. The No. 1 priority is employee safety.”
While prohibition keeps prices artificially high, security is a must for any dispensary. Cannabis is worth more on the street than it would be under full legalization, and therefore a valuable prize for would-be thieves.
One employee was taken to nearby Boulder Community Hospital, and three received treatment at the scene.
Ginsberg said she is optimistic that the man will be caught, saying the police have DNA from the cigarettes he smoked outside the dispensary. Police say someone also witnessed the suspect before the robbery.
Sadly, crime is a very real part of our society, exacerbated by a struggling economy. And sometimes stealing is much easier than getting a job.
While security is necessary, an end to prohibition would go a long way toward undercutting the black market and bringing the price of cannabis down. And the extra jobs brought about by legalization wouldn’t hurt either.
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Filed Under: Exclusive Web Content • Medical Marijuana News
Police: Pa. robbery suspect used infection threat (AP)
AP – Police say a man tried to rob a western Pennsylvania gambling parlor by threatening to spread a staph infection.
Yahoo! News: Odd News – AP
So this is highway robbery? (Reuters)
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian police have detained three suspected thieves who they say stole goods from trucks as they drove on highways at night.
The three men, aged 32 to 37, are suspected of involvement in about 30 cases of theft in their home Poltava region and neighboring areas, police said in a statement.
“A car with a specially reinforced hood would drive up behind a truck moving at 40-50 kilometers per hour,” it said.
“Standing on the hood, one of the thieves would then open the locks with wire-cutters, get in and pass the loot over to his accomplice.”
Police said the gang, which had at least seven cars, was the third of its kind to be busted in the last few years in the region.
(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov, editing by Paul Casciato)
Gumby attempted robbery suspect surrenders to San Diego police (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Gumby’s bandit days appear to be over.
A man named Jacob Kiss, 19, told police in San Diego on Tuesday that he is the person who dressed as the green animated character Gumby, entered a California 7-Eleven store this month and had an encounter with the store clerk that investigators later described as an attempted robbery, police said.
The suspect in the September 5 incident had claimed to be armed and demanded money, but left the store after the clerk dismissed him as a jokester, they said.
Surveillance video from the store was widely broadcast in news reports after the encounter between the Gumby-clad man and the store clerk, which made headlines as police searched for the suspect and his getaway driver.
Kiss brought the full-body Gumby costume with him to police headquarters when he turned himself in, and was accompanied by an alleged cohort named Jason Giramma, 19, who apparently drove away from the store with Kiss that day, San Diego police spokesman Detective Gary Hassen said.
Investigators questioned Kiss and Giramma, took down their statements and confiscated the slanty-headed Gumby costume before releasing the pair, Hassen said.
Police plan to give the evidence to the local District Attorney’s Office for possible prosecution.
Gumby, a green humanoid figure who looks like an elastic stick of gum with limbs, was created in the 1950s by the late Art Clokey and his wife, Ruth.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
Gumby calls it a robbery, clerk thinks it’s a joke (AP)
AP – San Diego police say surveillance tape shows a person dressed like Gumby telling a convenience store clerk he is being robbed, fumbling inside the costume as if to pull a gun, dropping 27 cents and leaving.
Yahoo! News: Odd News – AP
