TEMPE, AZ — A stolen car crashed through the front door of a Tempe smoke shop early Sunday morning, with thieves targeting high-demand vapes before fleeing in a separate vehicle.
Around 3 a.m., Tempe police say the driver of a stolen red car from Phoenix drove through the front entrance of the smoke shop located at Baseline and Mill. Security footage shows a masked suspect filling what appears to be an ice chest with hundreds of dollars worth of vapes and other merchandise.
The video captures audio of someone honking urgently from the parking lot while the thief makes multiple trips to fill the cooler with inventory. Police say the suspect then drove off in a different car, abandoning the stolen car inside the damaged store as alarms sounded.
"They focused on this section mostly, so they got a bunch of vapes," said owner Fadi Sayed.
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Sayed and his staff are still surveying the damage to determine the full extent of what was stolen. However, they believe the thieves may have been specifically targeting 'Geek Bar' vapes, a product currently in high demand due to manufacturing delays, supply chain issues, and tariffs on imports from China.
"That product is in high demand and we're in short supply," Sayed said.
The business owner opened the store two years ago and says he was finally gaining traction when this incident occurred. As he waits to learn what insurance will cover while Tempe police continue their investigation, Sayed hopes to reopen within a few weeks.
"We opened this store two years ago. It's to get my business going, like to get traction, finally did. Us being closed for a single day is going to hurt business," Sayed said.
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