Update (02/07/18 5:40 p.m.) – Medford police have charged a man in a weekend burglary. Officers said Curtis Bandfield stands accused of breaking into the wicked flower marijuana shop early Sunday morning.
Police said a second person broke in after Bandfield. That person hasn’t been caught.
Original story is below.
MEDFORD, Ore. – On Monday, NBC5 News revealed the Medford Police Department’s final crime stats for 2017. While robberies and residential burglary rates were down commercial burglaries were up more than 39 percent.
Police say that’s a trend continuing into 2018, and one that impacted a local store Sunday night.
Jeremy Haze owns Wicked Flower Dispensary. He said, “I think we have 29 cameras, and we have lasers and lights that go off if things get broken.” Those cameras caught a burglar in the act Sunday night, from start to finish.
Haze said, “Someone threw a rock through the window nine times”.
The burglar made a big mistake along the way. When he saw a $100 bill on the wall, he went to grab it, not realizing there was a camera next to it. That camera captured a clear image of his face.
But he wasn’t the only one trying to steal from Wicked Flower. “Like a half hour later someone riding a bike saw that the place had been burglarized so they grabbed some glass and a couple of pipes,” Haze explained.
Luckily for the business, it locks up its product at night so this won’t be a big loss.
“I imagine the window will be a couple hundred dollars and I don’t think the lighters and glass will be more than 50 bucks,” Haze said. “It’s not shocking. Though we are kind of a high-risk business.”
MPD Lieutenant Kerry Curtis said, “We have seen an uptick in business burglaries we had narrowed down a couple of suspects that we thought were involved in several of them but we continue to see them.”
Lt. Curtis said the only advice he can really give is for businesses to lock up their valuables and have a surveillance system in place.
Wicked Flower got lucky. The burglars missed the big ticket items in the store. Still, they say it’s a violation. “I don’t get shaken by crime so for me it’s just another instance of a lifetime or stuff,” Haze said. “And for me, I’m glad I got an experience like this to tighten up my security system.”
The store has put up a $1,000 reward for anyone who knows who burglarized the shop. If you know anything about this case, call the police.
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