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My cigar lounge got robbed last night

Melensdad

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
1am I was snuggled in bed and got a call from my alarm company.

Never a good call to get, but at 1am it pretty much sucks.

Got to the store before 1:30am. This is my newest cigar lounge, and happens to be only about 7.5 miles from my house.

I was greeted by a Cedar Lake, IN police officer at the back door to the store. In the rear lot we found some cigarette cartons scattered. The back door was literally torn off, the frame bent. The dead bolt destroyed, the sliding locks yanked out. Not sure what they used to do all that but they did a good job of screwing things up!!!

On the bright side the 3 juvenile jerks were caught on camera. Not yet caught by police, but I really have to give the local police and the sheriffs high marks. One squad was on the scene within 3 minutes of the alarm call. Backup arrived within another 3 to 4 minutes.

The misguided youths, who all appeared to be late teens to early 20's, were pretty piss poor robbers. They made off with a box of STALE tobacco :biggrin: They missed the CA$H completely. They also grabbed a few cartons of the lowest price generic cigarettes we sell and probably got 3 to 5 cartons of premium cigarettes. They left all the expensive cigars alone too.

Video showed they were inside the store for 15 to 45 seconds (each of them made one trip though the door, grabbed a few things and then ran out). So one guy grabbed to stale tobacco sitting next to the door (which was supposed to have been tossed into the trash today). Another guy came about 5' farther into the store, grabbed a handful of generics and ran out. The final guy ran into the front of the store, bumped into a display rack and made a little mess, that probably slowed him down. He came back from the front empty handed, grabbed some cartons from the back area and ran out. Total time in the store was under 1 minute.

What actually impressed me was the cooperation between departments. Cedar Lake is a small town, they called in a K9 unit from Crown Point, and that officer & dog were there within 30 minutes and walked the neighborhood looking for clues. Didn't find anything but I was still impressed with the cooperation between the 3 departments that responded.

Total damage and loss was UNDER $1000 so no insurance claim will even be filed. So I'm tired today. Didn't get to leave the store until about 4am and back to bed about 4:30. Today we have to rebuild the door, but my partner will handle most of that problem.
 
What a weird robbery. Doesn't sound like they were even looking for the money or that they had thought what they were after. I wonder if it was a gang initiation or something along that line?
 
No, I don't think it was a gang thing. I think it was a few VERY INEXPERIENCED punks who didn't really know what to steal. They grabbed some stuff and ran, probably trying to beat the alarm call, etc. The store alarm siren went off immediately because it doesn't have an entry delay set for the rear door. So the siren probably unnerved them and they didn't quite know what to do. Anyone with more experience would have realized that the alarm would sound, and they would have a delay before the police showed up. We got pretty lucky because there was a squad literally 1/2 mile up the street so he was on the scene very quickly.
 
Skurka i'm sorry for you pain....running a business no matter it's type dont need scum walking in and taking from your family's livelihood.....man i can understand you must be pissed on a big level.

Money never even amounts to the same level of the pain of intrusion but dont let the scum get you down...maybe leave out unlocked some fancy looking cigars for the next time they pull the same stunt(i hope they do not)but have them cigars laced with galloping knob rot.

Take care Skurka i will think of you tonight when i have a shifty Cigar out back.
 
Dargo said:
My guess is that you were robbed by some smokers!
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:pat:


I am sorry Bob but I had to laugh at Sherlocks thinking. Fun aside even though they didn't take much it is the repairs and crap that you have to go through now to get you store back in order.

Probably some young kids that are having trouble buying cigarrettes or may have been a gang initiation. JMO They may or may not have been smokers but I will let that for Dargo to decide.
 
Hawaii Five O on the job. Caught the culprit.
hangingaroundaa2.jpg
 
Bob, on the serious side, this is something that we may well see more of. As the increasing taxes drive the cost of cigarettes up they will become a more profitable target for petty criminals ... abundant supply, abundant demand, legal to possess and carry around.

I don't know what cigarettes cost these days but I would think that five cartons of cigarettes stolen and resold for half price would still bring in $100.

If you ever get robbed again and all the cigarettes and dipping/chewing tobacco stuff is still there but half a dozen boxes of high end cigars are gone please don't call the cops. I didn't steal them, I'll just be holding them hostage. :smile:
 
B_Skurka said:
No shit Sherlock :whistling:
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You know, based on your video, I'd bet that there were three of them, at least one of them wasn't deaf, none of them were class valedictorians and most likely they have already spent their weekly allowance or unemployment check!

I'd offer to let you borrow the 'real' Dargo to let him stay in your store at night except you'd probably be successfully sued if he ate a limb off an intruder. I'll keep thinking and see if I come up with any other revelations for ya. :flowers:
 
Frank, sadly I do suspect robberies will increase and tobacco shops will become more frequent targets. We were an easy target, the store was not 'hardened' to theft. that was my fault and I'm thankful to have learned my lesson with such a mild penalty. pros would have done a much better job in the same amount of time. the doors are now MUCH MORE SECURE and other measures are planned. my other stores are far more secure but this is a quiet rural town and I took some things for granted. Still I'm not mad at these kids. it really seems pretty funny to me that the majority of what they took was 2 year old stale tobacco that should have been in the dumpster long ago.Dargo, as for the offer. I have to pass. Snowball Puff would be greatly offended if I passed over him for the task.
 
glad to hear it wasn't a big loss.
on the plus side, for the next year you'll have a heightened police presence in the neighborhood...
 
Gerard said:
No shit Sherlock :whistling:

:yum::yum::yum::yum::yum:

Sorry to hear that Bob. It really suck being violated!
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Damn! I didn't know that Bob got violated as well!! I'm really to hear about his shop and I don't have anymore great deductions at the moment, but maybe if Bob will share with us the specifics on how he was violated that night as well, maybe I can cypher some additional helpful clues for him. :flowers:
 
Gerard said:
Is everything back to normal? Did you find out who did it?
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Yup, doors are now reinforced properly. The 3 misguided youths also busted the door at the Walgreen's Drug Store 3 doors down. Police happened to get there in time.:clap:
 
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