A group of thieves rammed a vehicle into an Oakland dispensary early Wednesday morning, ransacking the business while costing it tens of thousands of dollars in repairs.
The incident occurred just after 4:00 a.m., when a group of approximately seven or eight men pulled up to Ivy Hill Cannabis, located at 1834 Park Blvd. in several vehicles and drove one of the cars, a Lexus SUV, through the front wall, according to the store's employees. The suspects ran out of the vehicles and had about seven minutes to steal products before the police arrived.
After a one day closure, the almost one-year-old business reopened for its normal hours on Thursday.
Hilary O'Brien, the general manager at Ivy Hill, told KCBS Radio they've had numerous break in attempts since they opened last April, however this is the first time a group has been successful.
"We have eyes and ears 24/7 across the whole front and sides of the building. Everything is monitored 24/7. We get notifications all the time of people trying to climb the wall, break fire doors open" she explained. "Most recently we had someone use a crow bar along one of our side alleys, and try to see if they could gain entry and of course they couldn't. It's super secure."
O'Brien said the same group of suspects involved in Wednesday's incident also attempted to rob them around six months ago, and got further than any other prior attempt, costing the dispensary an estimated $6,000 of repairs. She estimated this week's incident will cost the business $75,000 to repair the damages, approximately three to four times more than the value of the product they stole.
"There's no way that any of them took home more than a grand," she said.
"We’re definitely going to look at different (security) upgrades, and how to mitigate this from happening again," one of the store's security officers, identified as Serge, told KCBS Radio.
Despite the robbery, O’Brien said her employees' morale remains strong and customer turnout on Thursday was "great."
"Everybody is ready to come back stronger than ever. We all love this place… we all feel super bought in," she said. "We're just going to move forward. The outpouring of support has been incredible."
"We're going to change the marquee to say 'you can't steal our joy,'" she continued.
She said that cannabis suppliers made deliveries to Ivy Hill all throughout Thursday with discounted deals to help the business get back on its feet.
Oakland Police told KCBS Radio they are investigating the incident. Anyone with further information is asked to call their general crimes section at 510-238-3951.
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