BILLINGS— Employees at B-Town Vapes and Glass in Billings are recovering from a Monday night armed robbery.
The store at 1500 Broadwater Ave. was robbed of $177 worth of alternative nicotine products around 9:25 p.m.
Watch to hear their story:
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Security camera footage shows what appears to be two young males approaching the store. One of them enters, and leaves with a bag while pointing a gun to the back of the store, where two employees were working.
General manager Traci Braun said she was the first person to get to the store after the robbery, rushing there after she received a phone call from the two employees who witnessed the crime.
“They were standing back here toward the back by the disposable case and just in tears, crying and, you know, very anxious, didn't know what to do,” said Braun.
“I mean, it was scary. You just don't know what you're going to walk into, right?” she added.
Police arrived shortly after Braun, and employees filed a police report. No suspects have been identified as of Thursday afternoon, according to Billings police.
“We do need the community's help with finding out who this was, knowing who it was, so it doesn't continue to happen,” said Braun.
Nicholas Tietz, CEO of B-Town Vapes and Glass, arrived at the scene as soon as he could that night. He is also asking the community for help identifying the suspects.
“I would just encourage someone to speak up because it could be someone else's family member that could be affected by this. It could be someone else's home affected. It could be someone else's business affected by this. And we're all part of a community and we need to stand up for each other,” said Tietz.
“I never thought that that would happen to us. But as you can see, it can happen anywhere. And that's why we're getting this word out so that way it doesn't happen again,” he added.
