Police: Cash trackers link 2 teens to armed robbery at Port Orchard pot shop
Cash laden with hidden trackers, a school laptop and Facebook linked two teens to an armed robbery at a pot shop in Port Orchard last year, according to Port Orchard police.
Prosecutors have filed first-degree robbery charges against an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old, both identified as Des Moines residents, in Kitsap County Superior Court connected to a robbery at the Herban Market Cannabis Company store on Bethel Road in November 2022. Charges were filed against the 18-year-old on Tuesday and against the 15-year-old as an accomplice to the robbery in Kitsap County Juvenile Court on Friday last week.
A warrant was issued for the arrest of the 18-year-old on Wednesday. The 15-year-old was issued a summons to appear in court on Feb. 14.
Officers were dispatched to the Bethel Road store on Nov. 3 last year for a robbery in progress, with the suspects holding employees at gunpoint and stealing merchandise from the store, a Port Orchard detective wrote in a report filed with charging documents for the 18-year-old. The value of the stolen items was later determined to be a little more than $1,200.
Employees reported that the two males had loaded up backpacks with marijuana products and cash embedded with hidden trackers.
“One employee stated that one male, with two Glock-type guns in his hands stated, ‘You already know what this is’ and motioned for the employees to put their hands up while the other male stole merchandise,” the detective wrote, noting that both males wore face masks covering the lower halves of their faces.
The two fled the scene in a white Toyota Corolla. Police were given tracking information for the money, followed its location east on Highway 16 and found the unoccupied Corolla at an apartment complex in Tacoma.
Using pings from the money, police determined that the suspects had arrived at the apartment complex and gone to a nearby Shell gas station. Security footage from the gas station gave investigators unmasked images of both suspects.
Police recovered two packaged cannabis products with the market’s barcodes and labels from inside the vehicle, linking its occupants to the robbery, as well as a laptop from Highline Public Schools, which a Mt. Rainier High School employee identified as belonging to the 15-year-old. A yearbook photo from Garfield High School, the 15-year-old’s previous school, linked him to the robbery as the suspect holding employees at gunpoint, the Port Orchard detective wrote.
While browsing a Facebook profile for the 15-year-old, the detective spotted and identified a friend who resembled the other suspect, the 18-year-old who was charged this week, according to court documents.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Trackers lead police to teens accused of robbing Port Orchard pot shop
