Whatcom pot shop chain suffers third burglary since August
A 28-year-old Bellingham man was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly broke into the 2020 Solutions marijuana retail store north of Bellingham and stole approximately $7,500 worth of merchandise.
It is the third time since August that one of the three 2020 Solutions stores in Whatcom County has been burglarized.
The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office booked Dwayne Wade Osborne into the Whatcom County Jail on suspicion of second-degree burglary and first-degree theft. Osborne also had outstanding warrants for attempting to elude a police vehicle and forgery from the Bellingham Police Department.
According to jail records, he is being held on $50,000 bail. Court records show he was scheduled to be arraigned in Whatcom County Superior Court on Friday.
Deputies responded to the 4700 block of Pacific Highway after an employee at the business reported broken glass and security video footage of a man moving around the store at 4:45 a.m. Tuesday, according to information provided by Chief Deputy Kevin Hester in an email Thursday to The Bellingham Herald.
A deputy in the area saw a car leaving the area of the store, made a traffic stop and found two people in the car, Hester said. One of them, later identified as Osborne, matched the description of the person who was seen on video, Hester said. Osborne’s shoes also reportedly matched a unique tread pattern found at the scene.
Hester said Osborne was detained, and a subsequent investigation found numerous items stolen from the business — mostly marijuana packaged for retail sale and pot edibles — in the trunk of the car.
In a follow-up email to the Herald Friday, Hester said deputies could not establish probable cause to arrest the female driver, as “this appeared to be a spur of the moment decision by him (Osborne) as they were traveling out to the Ferndale Road area.”
Hester said the Sheriff’s Office does not believe Tuesday’s crime is related to two others that occurred in Bellingham in August.
Bellingham Police arrested four people following an Aug. 30 burglary of the 2020 Solutions store on Iron Street. Two juveniles were arrested on suspicion of burglarizing the same location on Aug. 9.
Osborne already is awaiting trial on other charges.
He’s scheduled to appear at a December jury trial in Skagit County for a charge of second-degree robbery from March, according to court records, and has a Nov. 13 jury trial for charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, controlled substance possession and third-degree assault filed Dec. 26 in a Whatcom County.