In the 2000 Woody Allen movie Small Time Crooks, a dim, nickle-and-dime criminal hatches a plan to re-open a pizza place so he and his dimmer cronies can dig through to a bank down
the street. Proving that inspiration can come from anywhere, three men allegedly tunneled their way into a Laguna Niguel medical-marijuana dispensary two weeks ago and loaded up on bud.
Unfortunately for them, they did not quit while they were ahead (and likely buzzed), according to authorities.
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The Orange County Sheriff's Department accuses three men they picked up in a second burglary of the same Peralta Drive dispensary on Sunday of being the earlier pot snatchers as well.
It seems that after the first break-in, the dispensary owner got the bright idea of installing an alarm–something the tunnelers apparently did not anticipate.
Summoned by the alarm system around 1:30 a.m., deputies arrived to find three men running from the dispensary. The coppers found marijuana plants stacked near the back door and a tunnel leading to an adjoining business.
Four men–believed to be the three burglars and a getaway driver–were arrested after a search that utilized a sheriff's helicopter, the Orange County Register reports. The plant stackers were identified as: Sean Krizman,
27; Brady Royer, 22; and Andrew VanMourick, 21, all of Dana Point.
The driver, according to deputies, was Todd Crawley, 22, of San Juan Capistrano. They were all held on suspicion of burglary.
During the previous burglary, which had not been reported, two
safes containing medical marijuana were taken, dispensary employees told investigators.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.