Dispensaries, Beware: There's a Bud Thief on the Loose

We've all heard of a beer run, but one thief is now using the grab-and-dash method to obtain legal weed.

According to an industry bulletin from the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division, metro Denver is in the middle of a dispensary "shoplifting crime spree." These crimes aren't armed robberies or after-hour burglaries, however. Instead, the suspect steals jars of product by playing coy and then turning the burners on.

In at least five separate incidents, a person in a black hoodie has entered a dispensary and shown a Missouri ID bearing the name Isiah Devin Santonio Holcomb. This ID is stolen, according to the MED's memo, which offers more details about the suspect's shoplifting technique.

"The POI has been described as interacting with a budtender and requests they pull one to three different flower jars he is interested in. The budtender places the jars on the counter for him to consider. The POI then has the budtender pull another jar from a shelf so that the budtender has their back turned to the POI. At this point, the POI grabs the jars on the counter and exits the store," an August 4 crime alert from the MED reads.

The MED confirms that the thefts took place "throughout the last week of July in Denver and the surrounding metro area," but will not say where the thefts took place. The department's investigation is closed, and local law enforcement is "engaged," MED communications director Daniel Carr says. Without more details from the MED, public information officers at metro area police departments say they can't comment on the string of crimes.

To prevent similar incidents, the MED recommends that store owners have two employees in their retail area to help monitor transactions, and remind their employees to place jars of flower and other products in a secure location while retrieving other items for customers.

Because of the plant's federal prohibition, dispensaries still largely operate with cash transactions. Since medical marijuana businesses began opening in the late 2000s, most Colorado crime bulletins involving marijuana business theft have centered on armed robberies or burglaries. In late 2019 and early 2020, there was a string of armed robberies at dispensaries. Colorado's largest dispensary chain, LivWell Enlightened Health, experienced fifteen break-in attempts in 2020 alone, according to the company.

According to a 2023 report from the Denver Department of Excise & Licenses, there were 162 instances of criminal offenses against the local marijuana industry last year, accounting for 0.5 percent of the city's total crime reports. Of those 162 offenses, 156 were burglaries, while larceny accounted for the other six.

Stealing a single jar of weed has been a relative rarity...until now.