Despite security, Blasdell marijuana shop owner says burglars stole $389,000 in product from vault
The owner of a state-licensed marijuana dispensary in Blasdell said someone broke into his business and its walk-in vault and stole nearly $400,000 in cannabis products.
Whoever stole the pot on Feb. 23 was able to get through several locked doors, disable two security camera systems and use a numerical code to open the vault at the 716 Cannabis shop on Electric Avenue, according to co-owner John Duncan.
“I would definitely say that the person who did this had extensive knowledge of our business and the building we’re in,” Duncan told The Buffalo News.
He said the intruders walked out of the shop with 6,106 items, more than three-quarters of the shop’s inventory, including gummies, flowers, vapes and other items.
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“This has been devastating to a business that my wife and I spent more than three years to build,” added Duncan, whose shop opened in January. “We’ve basically put our life savings into this place.”
The burglar or burglars took $389,000 worth of pot and marijuana-related products, said Duncan, who runs the shop with his wife, Ashley Brown.
The unsolved crime is the first large-scale theft from any licensed marijuana business in Western New York since the state’s first cannabis dispensaries opened last July, according to law enforcement officials and sources in the local marijuana industry.
– Dan Herbeck and Samantha Christmann
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