The Chevron gas station at the corner of State Route 169 and SE 432nd Street was burglarized last Saturday in a rather dramatic fashion.
Around 4:13 a.m. on June 3, two cars – one white, the other red – drove up to the station’s store; the red car parked parallel to the building as the white car turned around to back up almost entirely into the store. No employees were in the store at the time.
Security footage showed several hooded and masked individuals then enter the store to take about $25,000 worth of vaping products, said station owner Carmen Olea; at least one individual was armed and can be seen pointing a firearm at the cash register, perhaps to shoot it, before thinking otherwise.
After grabbing the loot, the burglars take off in the red car, leaving the white one inside the store.
Olea said this is not the first time this has happened at her store, adding that she thinks this is a coordinated effort by a particular group. Footage from the earlier incident, which happened about a month ago, showed one individual wearing a blue baseball cap; the same cap appears to have been worn by an individual during this last incident.
It’s unclear if this is connected to a string of other burglaries and armed robberies that have plagued South King County convenience stores these last few months. Three stores in Auburn, Renton, and Federal Way were robbed at gunpoint on April 19; another five were robbed on April 21; and another five around May 26.
The Courier-Herald has reached out to the Enumclaw Police Department for additional information, but did not receive an immediate response.