Pot shop owner spots employees being robbed at gunpoint on surveillance cameras

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, Wash. — Employees inside a Mountlake Terrace pot shop were robbed at gunpoint then forced to hide in a bathroom—all while the store owner watched helplessly from home.

He saw the crime unfold on surveillance, called 911, and police arrived just as the two men were trying to make their escape.  

It happened late Tuesday night as Rainier Cannabis was closing.

Tad Seaton runs a pot shop—not a covert drug ring.

Trending headlines

• 3-strikes felon sentenced to life in prison is released early, now charged with murder
• Woman helps raise more than $40,000 for homeless veteran who gave her his last $20
• Police: Father killed wife, young son in Bellingham murder-suicide
• Some say Starbucks holiday cups promote homosexuality
• Unearthed mugshots show what Washington criminals looked like in the 1940s

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE NEWS APP

​So when two men, one armed with a rifle, the other with a handgun, burst through the front door of his business, he was more than a little surprised.
 
"Oh I was shocked, I was scared for the employees," Seaton said.

He was doing a routine check of his security cameras via cellphone, from home.  

"I realized the employees were on the ground and there were a couple armed robbers in the store," he said of what he saw.

The men filled bags with an estimated $12,000 in product, but they ditched them when police surrounded the shop and kicked in the front door.

The suspects kicked in the back door and fled, leaving behind an AR-15 and two cellphones they stole from the workers.

Police used a K-9 and tracked down both suspects in the neighborhood behind the business.

One had $400,000 burglary warrant; the other was a convicted felon.

Both are now in the Snohomish County Jail.

"It's discouraging that people try to rip off stores. It's encouraging that we have two guys that are doing this off the streets," Seaton concluded.

Cox Media Group