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Thieves Targeting Metro Area Vapor Pen Stores

AURORA, Colo. (CBS4) - A business man in Aurora reached out to CBS4 Monday morning saying his vapor pen store and others in the metro area are being targeted by burglars.

J.R. Robinson with Perfect Alternatives released surveillance video of the crime at his business. The store was open for business Monday but the door had been smashed in.

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Surveillance image of the burglars in action (credit: CBS)

The burglars took cash registers but what they were really after was high quality expensive e-cigarettes and vaping pens that are also called Mods.

"You can tell by the video footage that they knew what they were looking for," Robinson said.

The surveillance video shows two individuals breaking in to Perfect Alternatives at approximately 2:30 a.m. Monday wearing hoods over their faces and burglarizing the business.

The thieves took about two dozen high end e-cigarette vaping pens and hundreds of e-liquid tanks -- nearly $10,000 total, including damage.

Robinson, who owns Perfect Alternatives, said he's the latest victim in a string of similar burglaries within his kind of industry. He says it's because e-cigarettes and vaping pens are a new, growing and profitable industry.

"They're expensive; some of them they can run as low as $20 all the way up to hundreds," Robinson said. "They went straight for my good stuff, of course."

Cameras from a neighboring business show the suspects leaving in a dark colored Ford F-150 pickup. Anyone with information is asked to call police.

Just a few miles away Smooth Vapes was burglarized on Aug. 5. Owner Josh Turley said the suspects damaged the store and took thousands of dollars worth of expensive merchandise.

Aurora police confirmed the recent robberies of those types of stores, including another, but say overall the numbers are not above normal.

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