Pure Oasis, both the first recreational marijuana dispensary in Boston and the first Black-owned pot shop in Massachusetts, was among the many businesses hit by looting early Monday morning in the city.
Kobie Evans, a co-owner of Pure Oasis, told The Boston Globe that more than a dozen people entered the store after breaking through a large window around 1:43 a.m. Monday and stole roughly 2,000 pre-rolled joints and 2,000 containers of marijuana flower worth more than $100,000.
Security footage obtained by the Globe and published Tuesday shows a steady stream of people racing through the dispensary’s front desk into the back room, some returning with armfuls of product.
Given the Dorchester shop’s location far removed from the epicenter of the downtown looting Sunday night, Evans told the Globe that he suspects it was a “targeted attack” while the attention of law enforcement was elsewhere. Police did eventually arrive at the scene, but not before bystanders had joined in on the robbery.
“They were deliberate. They purposefully came just to our shop,” Evans said. “They were able to get into a secure back room. They knew exactly where they were going.”