PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — For the past 13 years, Green Goddess Remedies Weed Dispensary has been a mainstay in Portland’s retail cannabis business. But after the latest robbery at gunpoint, the owner is considering permanently closing.
Around 10 a.m. September 14, two people dressed in black walked through the front doors of the shop at 5435 SW Taylors Ferry Road. General Manager Elle Lune was working alone that day.
“I froze, and I immediately stuck my hands up,” she told KOIN 6 News. “They told me, ‘Show me the money.’ They grabbed the back of my clothes and pushed me through the door.”
Surveillance video captured the moments. Lune, her hands still up, opened the cash register. The thieves took the cash and pot products — and then demanded more.
“Then they took me into the back. He put the gun into my back and brought me through the door. And I asked him ‘If I opened all of the safes, can I please go?” And he said I couldn’t, but I needed to stay with them.”
Assistant Manager Alicia Bruggeman told KOIN 6 News the thieves got away with $13,000 in product and about $1000 in cash. It’s not the first time they’ve dealt with this kind of crime.
“About 10 months ago our last manager got held up by gunpoint,” Bruggeman said. “They stole some cash, they stole some bud, and they, like, mentally, really hurt her. Her and the other employee that were working, they ended up both quitting. They’re out of the cannabis industry altogether.”
The hits just kept on coming. About two months ago, “our building got run into by a distracted driver,” Bruggeman said. They started a GoFundMe to help repair the damage. “Then this week we got robbed at gunpoint again.”
The shop has now added extra levels of security, but the employees worry it won’t feel the same.
“For people who have been shopping here from the beginning, for them to see that they need to be buzzed through the door and that there’s only one person allowed in for bud is a stark change from what it was just a week ago,” Lune said.
The case remains open and the investigation continues.
Ariel Salk
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