The thieves tried to use a car to smash their way into a smoke shop, but were stopped by posts. In the process, A Pizza Mart next door was damaged.SEATTLE — Thieves targeted the same West Seattle smoke shop for the eighth time in a month, but a second business was also damaged this time.
Thursday’s incident at the strip mall at Southwest Roxbury Street and 35th Avenue Southwest is the third one this week, but this time, the thieves were not successful.when criminals used cars to ram the storefront and then ran inside and stole products. Since then, the shop owner had a row of posts installed in front of the business to prevent another smash-and-grab burglary, and they appear to have helped. In Thursday’s incident, the shop was still damaged, but no one got inside.When people tried to ram their way inside the smoke shop, they hit the front of the pizza business, leaving a partially broken window and glass scattered everywhere.We spoke with one of the pizza shop owners about the crime.
“It makes us feel unsafe, and we need more like watch here, someone needs to watch this area a lot more, not just us, maybe like police patrolling around or something,” he said.On Wednesday, we spoke with the owner of the smoke shop, who is frustrated by the repeated attacks on his business. “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.He’s considering hiring security guards.