A group of three smash and grab thieves in the Denver area have been committing a rash of thefts at stores in strip malls and shopping centers, particularly e-cigarette stores. The recent smash and grab theft occurred at six different stores in several shopping centers in Denver and several other cities in the area. The thieves struck one unfortunate store twice. Not happy with simply stealing the products, the thieves used baseball bats to smash their way into the stores and then into display cases and basically destroyed the businesses.
The “Elements of Vapor” store in Arvada, near Denver, was successfully robbed despite an alarm system, seven surveillance cameras, and its location in a busy shopping center. The footage from the store’s surveillance cameras shows the smash and grab thieves smashing nearly everything in sight with their bats. Besides the loss of thousands of dollars of inventory, the store owners are also faced with the cost of cleaning up the mess and replacing doors and display cases.
Their alarm system alerted the Denver owners to the break-in at about 2:00 AM. But since the smash and grab thieves were in and out in just two minutes, they were long gone before either the police or owners arrived on the scene. According to the store manager of the stricken store, they’ve been alert and on edge because of the rash of similar burglaries: “Every time one of these break-ins has occurred it’s almost immediately up on social media and it gets the information to each other fast.”
Despite sharing surveillance photos and details on social media, there are no leads on the smash and grab thieves’ identities, no way of predicting which Denver strip mall or shopping center they may strike next, and, so far, no way of preventing the thefts. The stolen products have yet to show up and the store manager is afraid the gang of thieves may be selling the stolen E-cigarettes to under-age smokers.
These Colorado shopping centers are not clients of Stealth Monitoring. Stealth Monitoring provides proactive live monitoring to detect and deter crime in Denver and other locations in the U.S. for greater security while reducing security guards and other expenses. When a Stealth operator sees suspicious activity like these smash and grab thieves, they can activate a speaker warning to scare the criminals away and call the local police before thieves actually break in.
Contact us for more information on how we can help you prevent smash and grab thieves at your business or property. Visit our web site and see actual videos of criminals being apprehended.
