"They come in the middle of the night. Breaking through doors, heads and faces covered to hide from surveillance cameras. Sometimes, they bring guns.
Amid Colorado’s booming legal recreational and medical marijuana trade, thieves are busting into shops and grow facilities looking for cash, sometimes running out with pot plants worth thousands of dollars.
Kristi Kelly, owner of GoodMeds Marijuana Dispensary, was hit three times by burglars taking advantage of an industry that is drowning in cash.
In Denver alone, there have been 17 reported burglaries at marijuana grows, dispensaries or manufacturers since January first, according to numbers compiled by the Denver Police Department.
Part of what makes Kelly and thousands of legal marijuana business owners vulnerable is that they operate largely as cash-only companies, without the ability to open a bank account.
Kelly must pay her employees in cash that often smells like pot. She cannot use checks to pay taxes, or accept credit cards from customers. Banks keep shutting Kelly down because the US government still considers marijuana illegal, and banks must answer to federal regulators.
“In the last 18 months, I've lost six bank accounts,” she told ABC News. “I feel very paranoid. I feel I’m always looking over my shoulder even if I have nothing of value on me.” "
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