Eden Cannabis employees quit as owners 'lose count' of recent robberies
A customer at a Portland dispensary fought off an armed robber with a tip jar, resulting in the robber escaping with nothing from the store.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A Portland dispensary has seen a mass exodus of employees after a customer had to fight off an armed robber late Friday night.
Eden Cannabis in the Buckman neighborhood is one of five locations that have seen a string of robberies in the past three years. Owner Laszlo Bagi said the latest robbery was their 36th or 37th, but adds that the team is “starting to lose count.”
And despite all these recent robberies, Bagi said he has yet to see an arrest.
Former Assistant Manger Curtis Gould is one of at least four employees who quit after the incident, but he told KOIN 6 News he was only aware of eight robberies in that timeframe. He said he feels more could have been done.
"Thirty times, and he's never even installed a door lock,” Gould said. “We don't have a light outside of that dispensary so that we can see people prior to entering the store. They've never upgraded the outside camera so that it has higher detail so that we could get a chance of catching this guy."
Surveillance video at the Southeast 12th Avenue location shows a customer spring into action by hitting an armed robber with a tip jar around 9 p.m. Police said the robber then struck that customer with a pistol.
Gould was there when the armed robber entered the store.
"A man came in – large, 6’5”, maybe 280 pounds I guess, something like that – started shouting for everybody to lay down on the floor,” Gould said. “So I think I realized quickly, probably the fastest in there, that we were getting robbed."
Gould told KOIN 6 News he tried to get the other employee into the backroom while he called 911. He said they "were well aware that it was a loaded gun with live ammunition in it."
The robber escaped before police arrived, but stole nothing from the store. No serious injuries were reported.
According to Gould, the company has "done nothing to install automated locks." Meanwhile, Bagi said he's struggling to keep staff because robbers are drawn to the dispensary for its cash business.
“It's hard because you lose your employees and no one feels safe in the industry,” he said.
Bagi said calls for increased security measures have led him to put a magnet on the door, but added that “it just wasn't strong enough.”
"An armed person came in here with customers in here. He didn't care,” he said. “I don't know what we could possibly do if we're not getting backed up by the city."