A smash-and-grab thief struck three convenience stores overnight -- two in Genesee County and one in Erie -- taking cash and cigarettes.
The first break-in was reported at West Main Mini-Mart, 3845 W. Main Street Road, Batavia, at 10:54 p.m., according to Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster. The perpetrator smashed in the front doors and stole the cash register and an unknown quantity of cigarettes.
At 11:35 p.m., dispatchers received a burglary alarm for the Raceway Mini-Mart, 629 E. Main St., Batavia.
When officers arrived they found the front door smashed in and reported seeing evidence that the cash register and some quantity of cigarettes were stolen.
Chief of Police Shawn Heubusch said Batavia PD will release information on this break-in later today.
The Erie County Sheriff's reported a similar break-in at a store in Clarence at 12:33 a.m with the thief getting away with loose change, according to Brewster.
UPDATE: Batavia PD reports that about 20 cartons of cigarettes were taken from the Raceway location.
Police should watch those
Police should watch those stores carefully over the next couple of weeks. The thief, or thieves, may try to sell the stolen cigarettes back the stores they stole them from.
My brother-in-law did a lot of smash-n-grab burglaries and that's how he was caught.
Why would the stores buy cigs
Why would the stores buy cigs from people off the street?
Hi Dan - Not all but
Hi Dan - Not all but certainly many corner stores in challenged urban neighborhoods supplement their legitimate cigarette supply with additional packs or cartons "turned in" by individuals. Stores can source cigarettes this way at an attractive discount compared to their usual cost and, at the end of the day, it's all about making cash for these owner-run stores. These cigarettes may perhaps be stolen but could also have been purchased legitimately and leveraged as an intermediary for converting available purchasing power from a credit card into cash.
Another common corner store activity involves trading food stamp benefits directly to cash at a steep discount, generally 50%. Some people especially with serious addiction issues prefer cash to food benefits because food can be obtained for free from food pantries and soup kitchens, so the food stamp benefits are viewed as disposable. Even at 50%, the converted food benefit is significant and provides an attractive once-a-month windfall which can be used for arbitrary cash buys.
Cigarettes (mostly untaxed) are also commonly sold by individuals in open-air urban environments such as where city bus passengers congregate. In this market the individual purchaser is getting the cigarette pack for less than he could at a store.
Although these various activities are illegal, consider that illegal commerce is the backbone of the challenged urban neighborhood, with few individuals employed traditionally but many involved in some sort of hustle. In this environment, these sorts of activity are viewed as normal and beneficial by community residents, meanwhile enforcement from outside is infrequent and made difficult by the recognizability of outsiders.