Police are investigating smash-and-grab burglaries at two Ellsworth-area smoke shops that occurred early Monday morning.
Intruders smashed a window to enter Smokey Bear Tobacco and Beverage, a vape and glass shop located next to Shinbashi restaurant on High Street in Ellsworth, and shattered the glass door at The Happier Choice, a medical cannabis dispensary on Bar Harbor Road in Trenton, according to employees of both shops who did not want to be identified. Both burglaries happened before 6 a.m.
The Ellsworth Police Department is investigating the Smokey Bear break-in, and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the Happier Choice burglary.
Once inside each business, the intruders shattered display cases and stole vape and marijuana products, employees said separately.
Smokey Bear, which doesn’t sell marijuana but does sell the supplies to smoke it, had reopened by 11:20 a.m. on Monday. The Happier Choice remained closed.
Monday’s break-ins are not the only cannabis shops in Maine to be burglarized in May. On Saturday, four masked suspects burglarized a Lisbon Falls cannabis shop, and two intruders broke into a cannabis store in Turner twice on April 30 and May 4. Police believe the Turner burglaries are connected.
