3 arrested after attempted burglary of pot dispensary

Petaluma police said an attempted burglary Tuesday of a marijuana dispensary just outside city limits resulted in a high-speed chase and manhunt through the countryside – and ultimately the arrest of three men possibly connected with a similar pot heist in Santa Rosa the night before.

Authorities received the call at around 2:48 a.m. Tuesday that Down Under Industries, a commercial marijuana dispensary on Ely Road North, was being burglarized. Because the location is outside of town, the county Sheriff’s Office was called, but they requested assistance from Petaluma police as well.

Police arrived to see four vehicles fleeing the scene, three of which matched the description of vehicles used in another marijuana dispensary burglary in Santa Rosa early Monday.

“Officers followed the vehicles as they entered southbound Highway 101 and a pursuit ensued,” Petaluma police said. “During the initial pursuit one of the suspect vehicles was observed taking the San Antonio Road exit. As speeds increased to over 100 mph, officers decided to terminate the pursuit.”

Returning to the San Antonio exit, officers spotted one of the vehicles, a white Mercedes, just off the highway offramp and attempted to apprehend the suspects. But another car chase began as the Mercedes fled southbound on Silveira Ranch Road – a frontage road near the Waste Management Redwood Landfill in Novato – until reaching a dead end. There the suspects drove through a cattle fence and then a chain-link fence, before crashing into a solar panel and coming to rest.

“The occupants of the vehicle quickly exited and fled on foot,” Petaluma police said. “Officers on scene requested additional resources to search the area.” Assistance came from CHP officers, Marin and Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies, and a CHP helicopter.

The manhunt ended in the arrests of Joshua Hawkins-Butler, 29 of Oakland; David Hill III, 18, of San Pablo; and Shawtanique Blocker, 31, of Oakland. All three were booked into the Sonoma County Jail on charges of evading arrest with disregard for safety, conspiracy, resisting arrest, and possession of burglary tools.

The arrests came mere hours after a similar heist was made by a group of thieves at a Santa Rosa cannabis dispensary early Monday in which more than $40,000 in products and cash were stolen.

In that incident, which took place shortly before 3 a.m., thieves driving a white Maserati, a white Honda Civic and a black Mercedes pulled up outside Doobie Nights at 3011 Santa Rosa Ave., broke in, ransacked the business and made off with trunks full of cash and goods.

After gaining access through the dispensary’s emergency side door, the thieves broke through as many as seven interior doors, damaging retail shelves and lighting, according to Donald Monday, the dispensary’s manager. They took an estimated $16,000 in cash, as well as cannabis products valued at as much as $30,000, he said.

Police were notified of an activated alarm and a burglary around 3:15 a.m. They found an “unknown tool was used to force open a door” on scene, according to Santa Rosa police Sgt. Ryan Cogbill.

According to security footage, there were up to seven people in the group, Monday said, adding that all of them wore hoodies and masks.

“I could barely sit in my office today — I felt like I was violated,” Monday said. “I kept thinking, ‘How did this happen?’ They don’t realize the lives they’re impacting and how this could make or break our business.”

Based on security footage, the group “knew what they were doing and it hadn’t been their first robbery,” Monday said.

He added that he wasn’t surprised by the break-in. A chain of robberies that occurred last month — on Dec. 1, Dec. 13 and Dec. 15 — prompted him to prepare for such an event at Doobie Nights, he said.

He and other Santa Rosa dispensary owners and managers joined in on a conference call Monday night to discuss ways of improving their security in order to prevent future thefts.

It was not immediately known whether Down Under Industries’ owners, Jamie Reagan and Rod Graf, were on that call. The Petaluma-adjacent dispensary is the first to be permitted in the county since recreational cannabis sales became legal.

Doobie Nights has since opened again to the public and resumed its regular hours.

“I hope other business owners are paying attention,” Monday said. “We need to be vigilant.”

Don Frances is editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Reach him at don.frances@arguscourier.com.