Thieves take cab to break-in

Thieves took a cab to an overnight break-in at a Kelowna cannabis store in the early morning hours of Sunday, before causing thousands of dollars in damage at the store. One of the three has since been arrested.

Co-owner of Hi Cannabis Caroline Lasnier was woken up at 1:55 a.m. by her store's alarm. When she opened up her camera feed on her phone, she watched the burglary of her Glenmore store taking place live.

She called police, who arrived within minutes, but the three thieves were out before police arrived, Lasnier says. But not before they smashed her front door, all of her glass display cases and made off with cannabis and other paraphernalia.

“All my displays got shattered, they just got off with pretty much the display cannabis and bongs, but they shattered everything,” Lasnier said.

She estimates the thieves made off with a couple thousand dollars in product, but she believes the damage to her store will be in excess of $5,000.

“It looked like a jewelry heist almost, it was crazy,” she said.

Police have told Lasnier that they've arrested one of the suspects, but she believes the other two are still out there.

After going through her security footage, she realized the three thieves were actually dropped off in front of the store in a Kelowna Cab about 50 minutes before the break-in occurred.

This is the first time Lasnier's store has been broken into since they opened in November 2021, and she's now considering beefing up her security.

“I know it's happened to other [cannabis] stores in town and I think the police believe it might be connected,” she said.

The store will be closed for the time being, as Lasnier and her team work to clean up the mess, but she's hoping to reopen next week if she's able to replace the display cases.