A 21-year-old man is facing multiple charges after Pittsburgh police say he led a group of four children through a multi-hour string of smash-and-grab robberies targeting vape shops across the city.
According to WPXI, Pittsburgh police charged William Yarbrough with 11 counts following the crime spree, which happened over the course of Friday morning. Investigators say Yarbrough directed two boys and two girls through the operation, with the girls positioned as lookouts while Yarbrough and the boys broke into the stores.
Surveillance footage obtained by WPXI captured one of the break-ins at a store on Forbes Avenue in Squirrel Hill, showing Yarbrough and two of the boys smashing through a glass window before making off with a cash register and ransacking shelves inside. The entire break-in reportedly lasted under a minute. Police say the group also targeted a second store in Bloomfield, and attempted a third break-in that was abandoned after the group failed to get through a plexiglass barrier and an alarm was triggered.
WPXI reports that police believe the group is connected to a broader pattern of vape shop burglaries that have hit that section of the city over the past several weeks, suggesting this wasn’t an isolated incident but part of an ongoing series investigators had already been tracking.
Police caught up with Yarbrough and the children following the multi-hour spree, according to the report.
Why This Matters for Vape Retailers
Smash-and-grab incidents like this one aren’t isolated to Pittsburgh vape shops have increasingly become a target for this kind of theft in cities across the US, largely because inventory is compact, resellable, and often kept accessible near the front of the store. Cases involving minors specifically add legal complexity for prosecutors and raise separate concerns about how young people are being recruited into these operations in the first place.
For shop owners, incidents like this are a reminder that visible surveillance alone doesn’t prevent a fast, coordinated break-in it primarily helps identify suspects after the fact, as it did here. Physical deterrents (reinforced glass, secured after-hours storage of high-value inventory) and rapid alarm response remain the more direct prevention tools, illustrated by the fact that the group’s third attempted break-in was abandoned specifically because an alarm sounded before they could get through the barrier.
Source: WPXI
