CLACKAMAS COUNTY, Ore. — In the early morning hours of Dec. 10, burglars broke into two House of Pipes stores, using a car as a battering ram.
Once the front glass was broken, surveillance video provided by the business showed the suspects jogging inside, ready to grab cash and merchandise from the shelves.
"There's a second security door on the inside, but they just broke right through that one as well," explained Brock Berg, Chief Operations Officer for the smoke shop chain, speaking with KGW outside the Happy Valley location, "I mean, this is probably the 20th time this has happened to us this year and the 12th in the broader Portland area. It's becoming very frequent."
According to video time stamps, a group — believed by the company to be the same suspects — smashed into the Gresham location around 3:15 a.m., then the Happy Valley location more than an hour later.
"They're pretty quick to get in, and as soon as they're in, they have a plan," Berg said, "They have garbage bags... Sometimes, they'll take our garbage bin, and they just start unloading shelves into the bins, get in the car and they're out within a minute-and-a-half, two minutes."
Berg said the suspects got away with lots of cash and merchandise, but the real expense after the break-in is repairing the buildings.
"Half the time, the amount of stuff that they're getting away with, it pales in comparison to the damage that they're doing to the building and the amount of money that we have to put out really fast to be able to secure our building for the next day," Berg said.
In spite of the damage, both locations were open for customers on Wednesday.
The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said the case remains under investigation, and they'd be interested in any tips from the public. Deputies there and officers with the Gresham Police Department confirmed that the vehicles used to smash through the buildings were stolen.