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Thieves Steal $10,000 Worth of Cigarettes From Gas Station

By Dominic Garcia

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) -  The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office says thieves stole a massive amount of cigarettes from the Shell gas station in Centennial at Arapahoe Road and University Boulevard.

It happened early in the morning on Oct. 5.

The suspect's game was one of the oldest in the book. One man picked out some items to purchase and kept the clerk distracted.

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(credit: CBS)

The other headed toward the back pretending to go to the bathroom, but instead went into a storage room. Authorities say he then loaded up with around 180 cartons of cigarettes and left out the back door.

"I don't know that I've seen cigarette theft like this. Certainly we've seen thefts of cigarettes from convenience stores but not in this amount. This was a lot," said Julie Brooks, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.

The value of the cigarettes stolen is around $10,000.

Investigators say one suspect has dark hair and was wearing a dark sweatshirt. He also appears to have a large tattoo on his right hand.

The other suspect has brown hair and was wearing a Colorado Avalanche sweatshirt.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867).

You can also text investigators at: 274637 (CRIMES) then title DMCS & enter your message.

Dominic Garcia anchors CBS4 News at 5 p.m. and reports for CBS4 News at 10 p.m. Connect with the Denver native on Twitter @cbs4dom & on Facebook.

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