Warren Vape Shop Lost $1,800 in Cannabis, Then Kept Getting Hit

Two men in dark clothes walked into Vapor Kings at 1956 Elm Road in Warren, Ohio, around 10:14 p.m. on June 19, 2024, and took about $1,800 in cannabis. One wore a white ski mask. The other, a Black man in all black, pointed what the clerk took for a handgun hidden in a hoodie pocket.

They wanted the mason jars and the pre-rolls, then ran south on Elm Road on foot. Nobody was hurt. It was the second ski-mask job at that counter in two days, and the shop would be hit for jarred flower again.

Ski Masks Hit the Elm Road Shop Twice

A Warren police report said the Wednesday pair covered their faces and hands and came in demanding cannabis. The clerk said one man aimed the assumed gun and told him to hand over the marijuana. Officers flooded the block and did not find them.

Hand over the marijuana.

Demand described by the Vapor Kings clerk, Warren police report, June 19, 2024

Police could not pull the in-store cameras that night. The employee on duty did not know how to run the system, so officers told the shop to call back when someone could cue the video. They also told the clerk to put electronic locks on the doors and to keep people in ski masks outside.

The next-day advice came after a first run on June 18, 2024, at about 6:20 p.m. Two people believed to be juveniles walked in, grabbed several vape pens, and slapped a female employee who tried to stop them. Both jobs used ski masks. The $1,800 cannabis take was the one that put flower, not hardware, into the bag.

The $1,800 Jars Walked Out 48 Days Before Legal Sales

Ohio voters had already passed Issue 2 on November 7, 2023, with 57 percent. Adults 21 and over could possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis, 15 grams of concentrate, and six plants once the law took effect on December 7, 2023. They still had no legal store counter in Warren, or anywhere else in the state, on the June night those jars left Elm Road.

Licensed shops did not start adult-use sales starting August 6, 2024, when the Division of Cannabis Control issued dual-use certificates to 98 dispensaries. That was 48 days after the Wednesday robbery. The medical program’s checks, the division said, let those stores convert ahead of a September 7 statutory deadline.

Vapor Kings was not on that list. It was a vape shop with mason jars and pre-rolls on the floor, a clerk who could not work the cameras, and a door that still opened to men in masks. The regulated trade, tracked on the state cannabis control division page, was built around vaults, inventory software, and age gates those 98 stores had already passed as medical sellers.

For six weeks after the Elm Road theft, anyone in Warren who wanted flower from a storefront was still shopping outside that system. The $1,800 night showed what that gap looked like with a hoodie pocket in the clerk’s face.

Vapor Kings Became a Repeat Address in Warren

The June jobs were not the first time that Palm Plaza shop was treated as an easy room to empty. They were not the last time someone in a mask went there for product either. The later court file even named the strains in the jars.

THE VAPOR KINGS HITS IN WARREN

Laeth Yacoub, then the owner, talked after the 2022 job as if a known customer had walked the layout. He said it must have taken a lot of planning, and that this kind of loss is part of business. The June 2024 cannabis robbery still has no defendants attached to it in later public court files.

What Did the Clerk Tell the Scooter Robber?

Around 11:20 a.m. on July 14, 2025, a young man in a black hoodie, tight black sweatpants, and a black ski mask came into the Elm Road shop on a motorized scooter. The clerk asked for identification and said he could not sell age-restricted goods to anyone under 21. The visitor lifted the hoodie, showed a pistol in the waistband, and asked again for the goods.

A Warren police report listed two jars of hemp flower labeled Snow Capped Grapes and Cream and Mixed, plus a carton of Game cigarillos. A witness standing close enough to hear him later described bright eyes, pale skin, and a distinctive voice. The rider left toward the Giant Eagle plaza. Police put the store video on the department’s Facebook page and asked the public to name him.

The clerk’s line, and the robber’s answer, sat in that video. The shop was still selling jarred flower a year after the $1,800 night, still under a ski mask, still at gunpoint. The age check was the only new friction in the room.

Don’t click no button. I’m not going to do anything to you.

The scooter robber to the Vapor Kings clerk, July 14, 2025

Prosecutors later treated the weapon as a toy gun, which is why the adult charges moved off a first-degree aggravated robbery count. The police report had described a pistol. Both descriptions refer to the same object shown in the waistband that morning.

Trumbull County Closed the 2025 File With Probation

Police identified the rider as a juvenile and two young adults as the people who drove him. Alivia Spitzer, then 18, of Laird Avenue SE in Warren, and Kelly Sexton, then 18, of Niles Cortland Road NE in Cortland, were indicted on aggravated robbery. Each bond was set at $50,000 with house arrest at their own expense. They first pleaded not guilty in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Both later pleaded guilty to third-degree robbery. Sexton had been looking at a first-degree felony; prosecutors cut it in exchange for the plea. He could have taken three years in prison on the amended count.

WHAT THE 2025 CASE PRODUCED

• The rider: An unnamed juvenile was sentenced in juvenile court for the scooter entry and the waistband threat.
• Alivia Spitzer: On March 3, 2026, then 19, she received three years of probation, a curfew, and an order to write an apology letter to the victims.
• Kelly Sexton: On March 12, 2026, then 19, he received three years of probation and credit for 60 days already served in jail.

The Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed those terms. The only Vapor Kings flower case that produced names, pleas, and a judge still sent the adult drivers home under supervision. The June 2024 $1,800 file never reached that docket.

Four People Smashed a Second Vapor Kings Door

Warren police were called about 1:30 a.m. on January 31, 2026, to a Vapor Kings shop on N. Park Avenue for an alarm. The front-door glass was smashed. Display cabinets inside were smashed. A baseball bat with glass in it sat on the floor and went in as evidence.

Store video showed four masked people in dark clothes break the door, grab what they could carry, and run. That address is not the Elm Road counter that lost the $1,800 in cannabis. It is the same brand, in the same city, hit in the same style: masks, speed, and a clerk who is not there at 1:30 a.m. to ask for ID.

Electronic locks and a ban on ski masks, the advice from June 19, 2024, do not stop a bat on an empty store. The Elm Road robberies were walk-ins during open hours. The N. Park Avenue job was a smash-and-grab after closing. The product on the shelves still drew the same kind of crew.

Ohio Pulled Intoxicating Hemp Off Vape Shelves

By the time Sexton was sentenced, Ohio had also closed the side door that let smoke shops sell intoxicating hemp next to vapes. Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 56 as enacted in late 2025. The law took effect on March 20, 2026.

OHIO’S RULES AFTER MARCH 20, 2026

• Unlicensed flower: Cannabis from anywhere other than an Ohio-licensed retailer or a home grow is a crime again.

Hemp loophole: Intoxicating hemp is illegal at ordinary retail after DeWine vetoed a temporary drink exception.

• Store cap: Licensed dispensaries are capped at 400.
• Old limits kept: Adults 21 and over may still possess 2.5 ounces, 15 grams of concentrate, and six plants.

The Marijuana Policy Project’s state briefing lays out those unlicensed cannabis and intoxicating hemp rules as a rollback of Issue 2. For a Warren vape counter, the practical change is simpler. The jars that were worth robbing in 2024 and 2025 are no longer supposed to sit beside the vape pens.

Public court files still name no one for the June 19, 2024, $1,800 cannabis robbery on Elm Road. The 2025 hemp-jar case ended in probation. The N. Park Avenue door was already broken by the time the hemp rule took hold.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on police reports, court outcomes, and Ohio cannabis statutes, and it is for information only. It is not legal advice and does not decide whether any past sale, product, or shop practice was lawful. Readers who need help with a charge, a license, or a plan to sell hemp or cannabis in Ohio should talk with an Ohio-licensed attorney before acting. Dollar amounts, charges, sentences, and legal status follow the police reports, prosecutor statements, and statutes on the dates named above and can change.