The owners of Lewis County Coffee Company are hoping the public can help lead law enforcement officials to the burglars responsible for breaking into one of their locations, stealing their logoed delivery van and going on a crime spree that hit four additional businesses in Chehalis and Centralia in the early morning hours of Feb. 19.
The homegrown coffee provider is releasing surveillance footage in hopes it will lead to tips that will solve the crime, which is likely linked to a broader string of recent burglaries.
Owner Sam Magnuson told The Chronicle her phone rang at 4:02 a.m. Feb. 19 with an alert from a security company. A quick check of the surveillance cameras revealed someone had just broken into the stand at 2005 Jackson Highway in Chehalis.
“Upon arriving at the location, we found the back door damaged where the pry bar was used to break into the building … Once inside he opened the drawer and took a small gram scale used to measure coffee, green in color, that may have the name Angie or LC Coffee written on it,” and keys to the delivery van Magnuson wrote in a description of the crime.
The burglars then stole the Lewis County Coffee Co. delivery van along with money, tools and other items, exiting and re-entering the stand twice to steal the items.
Magnuson estimates they caused $2,500 in damage to the stand itself and another $250 to the stolen van, which was located hours later on State Avenue near Palmer Lumber at about 6 a.m.
It is suspected the burglars conducted additional burglaries at other businesses after stealing the delivery van, among them Encore Auto, H&R Block and O’Reilly Auto Parts in Centralia, after breaking into Lifetime Granite several before Lewis County Coffee.
Magnuson believes additional recent burglaries were also conducted by the same suspects.
Anyone with information on these burglaries is asked to contact the Chehalis Police Department, which can be reached by email at chehalispd@ci.chehalis.wa.us or by phone at 360-748-8605.
Note: The timestamps in the attached video are not accurate.
