West Seattle smoke shop damaged in 7th smash-and-grab burglary

SEATTLE — A West Seattle smoke shop is damaged yet again after burglars crashed a car into its storefront.

The break-in at Global Smoke & Vape at Southwest Roxbury Street and 35th Avenue Southwest happened around 2 a.m. Wednesday.

That’s when the owner of the shop was alerted by his security system.

According to the shop’s owner, this is the seventh smash-and-grab burglary at the store. The last burglary happened early Tuesday morning.

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In this latest burglary, surveillance video shows four people were involved. They are seen climbing over a door that was ripped off of its hinges and then stealing products.

Two cars were used, one to crash into the building and another to flee.

Plywood was put up on the storefront at about 10 p.m. Tuesday after the earlier burglary that morning.

Some of that plywood was in a pile on the ground, and the store’s gates were mangled.

“It’s not good, but we’ll see. We tried to find some other solution, maybe hire some security or something like that, we’ll see,” the owner said.

He said the burglars are selling his merchandise online through social media posts.

“I’m a small business owner, I pay the tax, I need safety too, right!? How can I survive, every day this is happening,” he said.

The owner is wondering what can be done about the crimes, aside from police patrolling there every few hours.

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