'Just So Frustrating': Pryor Store Owner Loses Thousands After Thieves Steal Cigarettes

A Pryor convenience store owner is out thousands of dollars after thieves smashed her window and stole a trash can full of cigarettes.

“They just came in, and in armloads they threw them in a trash can and out they went,” said Susie Sumter, the owner of Okie Dokie convenience store.

She says the thieves were wearing masks and were in and out just minutes before her employees arrived to open the store that morning.

Pryor police say the thieves brought their own trash can, their own landscaping rock, and the whole crime took about 60 seconds.

Surveillance video shows two people wearing masks throwing a large rock through the front glass door of the Okie Dokie convenience store, Monday morning, then dragging a trash can inside and loading it full of cigarettes. The trash can has a City of Tulsa logo on the side.

“I just flew up here, the police were already on scene. I don’t know how they missed them because it was just instant,” said Sumter.

Sumter says her surveillance video showed the crime was fast, but it still left behind a huge mess.

“I want these people to be caught. They need to pay restitution, they need to be punished,” said Sumter. “It just gets so frustrating. Just so frustrating. You work and you try to make a living for yourself and for your employees and then this hits.”

Police later checked their license plate reading camera system and believe they spotted the thieves’ vehicle coming into Pryor just minutes before the burglary. Police say the way it went down and how fast it was make them believe these two have done this before.

“They knew exactly where they were going, where the cigarettes were kept, the cases of cigarettes were kept in the cabinets, they knew exactly where those were at, they went right for that. They didn’t touch the tills on the cash register, they didn’t steal anything else, it was just the cigarettes and they left the store,” said Ross Armontrout with Pryor Police.

Sumter says this takes a toll on small businesses.

“When you have a chain, they just absorb the loss. When you are just a mom-and-pop store like we are, it hits hard. It hits hard,” said Sumter.

Sumter is offering a $3,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest.

Anyone who has information that may help solve the case should call Pryor Police.