By Carol Tannenhauser
Exotic Smoke Shop, at 483 Columbus Avenue, between 83rd and 84th streets was robbed last Monday at around 1:30 pm, by two men, one displaying a handgun. The video below shows the men first appearing to browse, after which one pulled out the gun (not caught on tape), and the other removed approximately $390 worth of merchandise, according to police. The 21-year-old clerk was not hurt.
Convenience stores and smoke shops seem to be favored targets of robbers, perhaps because they’re known to deal in cash. West Side Rag has reported on a number of robberies of such establishments, including this very one, which was held up only days after it opened in August, 2022. Then, more than $30,000 worth of merchandise was removed.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/or on Twitter @NYPDTips.
All calls are strictly confidential.
This shops have to go. They are a big problem for the neighborhood.
They cannot be gotten rid of and will only grow is number. Remember all those local elcteds you keep voting in made pot legal
Why can’t the properties be treated like adult bookstores, and addressed by civil forfeiture? The landlords, who most likely don’t live on the UWS, are presumably collecting rents on these properties, at the expense of the QOL of UWS residents.
Is it true that some smoke shops do not have a license to sell weed, so the robbers know the store won’t call the police?
Let’s be clear – NO smoke shops are licensed to sell cannabis legally. Actually there isn’t a store in all of NY state that can sell non-medical cannabis legally!!
If these businesses are illegal, how are they not in violation of their leases? And how are they insured? And….uhm…..taxes?
They sell legal merchandise too.
I’m glad the teenage clerk was not hurt..
However, all they have on tape is two well-dressed men shopping on the tape. Why isn’t the so called robbery with a gun on tape why don’t we see them taking the merchandise. The story sounds fishy.
These shops need to go. They attract all types of criminals. Ruining our neighborhood.
Criminals AREN’T the only ones that smoke weed. People that need it for medical reasons that can’t afford a card, company executives (they usually have theirs delivered by dealers), stressed out moms that prefer it instead of wine. The non criminal list can go on. Get up to date with the program
Look at older WSR articles about these shops. Most of the posts are from my neighbors supporting them. Let’s open more so every block can be like the McDonald’s block.
This is the new norm.
These stores are a blight to the neighborhood! Get rid of them!
Amazing that selling drugs illegally via these shops is totally fine with our DA.
Selling weed and possessing it has. Been Legalized in NYC they are just selling it without a license. But the first licenses were handed out this past Monday so more stores to rob.
They are a blight.
I’m a child of the 60s and the smell of pot makes me physically sick. Totally inconsiderate users polluting the air all over UWS. Gross.
But it’s politically incorrect to oppose the stench…
No it’s not. Just because people are doing it? That’s anti social behavior combined with fear. I have no problem with weed being legal. However public smoking laws apply. It’s illegal anywhere tobacco smoking is illegal. Of course people will make lazy mental shortcuts if you let them. Don’t. You don’t have to risk a fight. But you can glare and shun and make clear that it is wrong. Because it is!
However politically incorrect it might be, I had to tell people to at least step aside when they were puffing into my child’s face at the bus stop.
Smoking tobacco has been banned in parks, but pot smokers have no regard for the law or people around them. All because of political correctness!
these businesses are an easy target because they only deal in CASH, they can’t accept credit cards since it is still illegal federally, so no major CC will touch them.
Competition is a wonderful thing. Eventually most of these stores will burn through their bank accounts and start to close. The strong will survive.
Let us count the ways, the ways progressives have helped destroy our city:
1) Legalizing marijuana, which has created a more lawless environment.
2) Creating bike lanes, which has increased congestion and stress, destroyed Manhattan for pedestrians, and, ironically but predictably, has only aided food delivery workers.
3) Instituting bail “reform,” which may have been a good idea in theory but has only served to let the criminal class know that there are even fewer consequences for their actions.
And the new Racial Equity Office and Commission, replete with a Racial Equity Office, Commission, and Chief Equity Officer. I’d rather my tax dollars go to fighting crime and cleaning up the streets
To me, your points #1 and #3 are spot on. However, again to me, I welcome non-car transportation.
Your comments are expectedly hyperbolic. I get no greater delight than listening to people opine about the evils of the bike lanes. Apparently, they don’t remember what it was like when bicycles interfered with vehicular traffic when they were forced to dangerously share those lanes. No congestion or stress when your vehicle was stuck behind a bicycle, right? Destroying Manhattan for pedestrians? It couldn’t be better considering all the new traffic islands and clarity related to the bike lanes. I refuse to accept that people cannot safely navigate a CROSSWALK because of the bike lanes. Crossing where you’re supposed to is not difficult. Your comment about only food workers benefitting puts a cherry on your illogical rant.
Dear Boris, whose comments I look forward to and enjoy: I fear you are slightly off the mark on this one. You are speaking as a driver, not a pedestrian. Pedestrians can’t safely cross the streets anymore because cyclists go the wrong way on one-way street bike lanes all the time. I almost got hit last night by a bike speeding South on Amsterdam. Did not matter that I was in a crosswalk and had the light.
I might agree with you (under certain circumstances) if there weren’t officially designated two-way bike lanes on numerous one-way streets throughout Manhattan and other boroughs. How do pedestrians manage to cross those lanes? It’s simple – they look both ways. If I were you, I wouldn’t devote so much angst toward bike lanes and cyclists because of such situations which aren’t insurmountable. People who constantly moan about cyclists set themselves up for a lifetime of unnecessary stress.
Bill,
I don’t see the NYC bicycle lobby as “progressive” actually.
Actually many very wealthy people donating to and advocating for bicycling. And don’t forget, it was Bloomberg who initiated NYC’ bicycling infrastructure.
Progressives can’t also be wealthy?
In California and Illinois the cannabis shops are very nondescript, you have to show ID to an armed security guard who scans it, then he buzzes you in to the interior of the shop. Then you go in, make your selection, pay in one area and pick up your purchase somewhere else, and in Illinois you go out a different door. Security it tight because it’s an all cash business and the product has value as well. The way it’s run in NY is, not surprisingly, shambolic.
Three smokeshops in a four block radius. Obnoxious
WSR the first cannabis licenses have been issued in the 5 boroughs, could you do an article and confirm which ones are on the UWS?