CHURCHVILLE, Md. — Everyone knows nicotine is addictive, but a burglar in Harford County has gone to unprecedented lengths to feed their habit.
Manager Amanda McArdle of Class 5 Vapors describes what she saw on the surveillance video as the vape bandit struck her store in Churchville at one o'clock in the morning on Monday.
"I saw a bike pull up outside the front door. They took a golf club and smashed the door open,” said McArdle. “Ran back to the cases, smashed the cases and started stuffing into their backpack what they could get."
New laws restricting the ages of their customers and ever-increasing scrutiny surrounding vape products have already cut into business in recent months, which makes this random burglary that much more costly.
"With the glass, the vinyls that we have on our doors, our floor is all messed up, our cases as well as some of the products that they didn't take that are just smashed... have glass shards all over them, we can't sell that to customers you know?” said McArdle. “It's just damaged product. It's all a loss."
"It's about at least a thousand dollars worth of property and several thousand dollars worth of damage that was done to this store," said Col. William Davis of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office.
Police are now hoping images of the vaping villain may provide a clue to their identity before they strike again.
"The suspect was completely covered from head to toe so it's very hard to identify who that might be,” said Davis, "Somebody might know the clothing. Somebody might know a particular set of shoes that the person had on. Somebody might know the bike."
If you recognize the burglar, you can call Harford Crime Solvers at 1-888-540-8477.
