A security guard hid inside a downtown Los Angeles cannabis dispensary overnight as suspected burglars rammed the storefront with a car, kicking off a chain of events that ended with three arrests and a second shop just blocks away. Police say they believe the two break-ins are connected, and they have not ruled out a third scene.
The first call came in around 1 a.m. Tuesday, when officers responding to a cannabis store on Imperial Street found suspects allegedly ramming the building with a vehicle, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. A security guard was inside the store at the time and hid rather than confront the intruders, the station reported. When officers arrived, the suspects took off in their car, and a pursuit lasted only about five minutes before it ended with three burglary suspects in custody.
A Second Break-In on Mateo Street
Investigators were also looking into another suspected burglary at a cannabis store on nearby Mateo Street. Officers who responded there did not find any suspects, but the outlet's report notes they did turn up evidence that a break-in had occurred. Video from that scene showed a shattered glass door, and police now believe the Imperial Street and Mateo Street incidents are connected.
Investigators also raised the possibility of a third scene tied to the same spree, though the station's report said details on that location remained limited. It is not yet clear what, if anything, was taken from either dispensary, and no detailed description of the suspects beyond their arrest has been released.
Not the First Time for DTLA Dispensaries
Downtown Los Angeles cannabis shops have been targeted before. Earlier reporting from ABC7 Los Angeles described thieves pulling a front gate open with a car at the Green Qween dispensary on Broadway, marking the second time that business had been hit since it opened; the thieves fled before officers arrived, and police never released a detailed suspect description in that case either.
The pattern fits a broader trend tracked across the city. Crosstown reported that licensed cannabis shops in Los Angeles logged 73 crime reports in the second quarter of 2023 alone, a 70% jump from the same period the year before, and 151 crime reports in the first nine months of that year compared to 165 for all of 2022. Burglary or attempted burglary made up 61% of those incidents, per the outlet, and downtown Los Angeles recorded more cannabis-shop crime reports — 13 in the first nine months of 2023 — than any other neighborhood in the city.
A Citywide Problem, With Mixed Signals
LA Taco has reported that an LAPD dataset showed 10 reported crimes at city cannabis retailers in January and 14 in February of a recent year, far above a historical monthly average that rarely topped four, with Hollywood, Downtown, Van Nuys and Larchmont absorbing the brunt of it. From 2018 through August 2023, LAPD recorded 539 robbery and burglary reports at medical and retail cannabis businesses citywide, according to Crosstown, with roughly 83% still listed as under continuing investigation.
Not every indicator points the same direction, however. Mayor Karen Bass has said residential and commercial burglaries citywide are down 30% in 2026 compared to the year before, according to CBS News Los Angeles. Even so, in a report published August 25, 2025, KTLA described dispensary burglaries across the broader LA area as rising in the months leading up to that report. It reported deputies responding to a shattered storefront at a West Hollywood dispensary where a manager said the shop had suffered its sixth or seventh break-in. That same report noted The Woods WeHo, co-owned by Bill Maher and Woody Harrelson, was hit by smash-and-grab burglars in May.
Back in downtown LA, police have not said what charges, if any, the three suspects arrested Tuesday will face, and the possible third scene connected to the Imperial and Mateo street break-ins remains unconfirmed.
