Vape shop in Pierce County burglarized, storefront nearly destroyed by stolen KIA

PUYALLUP, Wash. — A local vape store in Pierce County was burglarized early Saturday morning after a group of people rammed a stolen KIA into the business, causing thousands of dollars in damages.

According to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, the call came in around 6:27 a.m. that a stolen KIA from Kent ran into Vapor City off Meridian Ave East, then several people ran inside and grabbed products off the shelves. A spokesperson with the department says that the group fled the scene in a different KIA.

Vanessa McFarland, whose family owns Vapor City, tells KIRO7 it will cost them more than $20,000 to repair the damage left behind by this burglary.

“I just feel so sorry and sad for my family more because this is something coming out of their pocket and we are losing money all the time from kids like this,” McFarland said.

She says this sort of burglary is a first for them. In the past, she says people have broken in before, including an instance where they came in through the roof, but she worries if people continue to use cars like battering rams to break in, she isn’t sure how much longer they can stay in business.

“Personally, no. I don’t think I could. I have a 5-year-old daughter. So, I just don’t think that I could ever let this keep on happening and still be in this business. But I mean, it’s tough,” McFarland said.

The store manager tells KIRO7 the amount of product the group stole didn’t even come close in value to how much damage was caused.

“This glass is definitely not cheap to fix. So, it definitely hurts way worse than what they ended up actually taking,” Manager Andrew Ranger said.

Both are hopeful the people responsible are caught because they believe that stores like theirs are becoming too easy of targets.

“And then we close up and you are ramming our building with a car. I mean, it doesn’t end. So, I don’t know what could happen next,” McFarland said.

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