Help ID armed smoke shop robbery suspect accused of threatening worker with knife
WANTED IN PIERCE COUNTY - Pierce County Sheriff's detectives are hoping you can help identify this armed robbery suspect who targeted a smoke shop in the South Hill area last month.
Surveillance video shows the suspect walk into ‘Vape on the Beach’ on the corner of Highway 161 and 128th St. E. on Wednesday, June 10th.
Detectives say he walked to a display table, grabbed several expensive vape kits and when a worker tried stopping him from leaving, detectives say he pulled a knife and threatened the worker and ran off.
"This is not a shoplift. This is a robbery. Once you go into a store and grab high-value items and you're leaving the store, you're continuing to go out the door, that's a shoplift, but once you're confronted and pull a knife on somebody, that turns it into a robbery and that makes that person dangerous, because if they're willing to pull a knife out on somebody over property, that means they're probably going to do it again, so we want to figure out who this, get the person apprehended before anybody gets hurt, especially an employee of the store,” said Pierce County Sheriff’s Det. Ed Troyer.
The suspect's skinny and wore a baseball hat backwards that seems to have the bill curving up in a pretty distinct way.
It looks like he's got a goatee with a thin beard.
If you know his name, submit it to Crime Stoppers and claim the cash reward of up to $1,000. Use the P3 Tips app on your smart phone, or call the hot line at 1-800-222-TIPS.