Investigators spoke out on Monday about their search for whoever is responsible for a rash of cigarette thefts. According to investigators, a robber used his truck to smash through a garage at the Get N Go carryout on Lockbourne Road and then stole hundreds of cigarette cartons on Sunday. The Columbus Division of Police continues to investigate at least a dozen reports of thefts involving crooks stealing from convenience stores and targeting cigarettes, 10TV’s Maureen Kocot reported.

Get N Go owner Mahmood Tariq said that the man took at least 200 cartons that average $50 to $55 each.

Police said they found and arrested Paul Arthurs in a nearby alley trying to steal a woman’s purse.

Arthurs, 31, was charged with breaking and entering, Kocot reported.

It was not immediately known if Arthurs had a role in similar crimes.

Subhi Saleh, the owner of a BP Station on East 17th Avenue, said thieves recently targeted his store and took cigarettes, part of the security camera system and an entire ATM machine, all valued at up to $23,000.

Saleh said that a similar theft happened in the summer.

“Since the first (burglary) we beefed up. We added 16 cameras, (a) new alarm system with new backups, all this up-to-date technology, but there’s no stopping it,” Saleh said.

Saleh said he believed the crooks used a sledge hammer that left a huge hole in the side of his store. When they got into the store, the thieves went to the expensive cigarettes and took 200 cartons.

Saleh said that the crooks also took some cigars and part of the security camera system.

Investigators were working to determine if Arthurs could be responsible for the recent rash of burglaries, Kocot reported.

Detectives said that they had identified some suspects in the thefts, and they were working on making arrests.

Watch 10TV and refresh 10TV.com for additional information.

Local cigar bars are flaring up after a Lancaster County judge’s ruling that certain exemptions to Nebraska’s smoking ban are unconstitutional. The law took effect June 1, 2009. Judge Jodi Nelson said she agrees with the law’s exception for research facilities. But she said cigar bars, hotels and tobacco shops aren’t different enough from other workplaces to warrant special treatment.

For the time being, cigar shops are still allowed to have people smoke cigars inside. Still, cigar bar owners and legislators that support them expressed anger Thursday over the ruling.
“If these items constitute special legislation then our jobs are going to get a lot easier,” said State Senator Scott Lautenbaugh, who sponsored the cigar bar law. “Likely, all the sales tax exemptions would be special legislation.”
Phil Vanderpool, who owns Nickleby’s Smoke Ring, said the latest ruling, if upheld, would keep his cigar shop smoke free. Vanderpool said that would be detrimental to business.
“Two months, three tops, out of business,” said Vanderpool. “I think smokers, period, have been targeted,”
Vanderpool’s shop is one of maybe a dozen in the state that offers high-end cigars and pipe tobacco from all over the world to tobacco enthusiasts. Smoking, Vanderpool said, is a big part of what they do.
“We get samples in from tobacco companies, cigar rollers, every day, and we have to be able to try them to see if we like them,” said Vanderpool. “That’s part of our business. I don’t think it’d make it as a stand-alone without smoking in it.”
Vanderpool said Nickleby’s never has and never will be a place for those who don’t smoke.
“It’s a destination point,” said Vanderpool. “People want to have to come here.”
The state and cigar shops are asking the Nebraska Supreme Court to hear an appeal of the ruling. Hotels would also be affected if Thursday’s ruling is upheld.

Police say a trail of children’s confessions led them to a smoke shop in Oregon City where workers have been routinely selling tobacco to underage kids. Oregon City investigators say it all started with a mother who said she caught her teenage son with tobacco that he claimed he bought at Cigarettes Cheaper in the 19000 block of Beavercreek Road.

Late last year, police performed a sting operation at the store using an underage decoy.
Police say the clerk sold the smokes to the decoy, and officers then cited Tri Trinh for endangering the welfare of a minor.
Since the beginning of the year, several other underage teens have come forward to say they’ve bought cigarettes at the store, police say. One student said he did it more than 30 times, according to investigators.
Police say a student also told investigators he was able to buy alcohol at the store.
Officers are now asking the city to review the store’s business license.
Trinh wrote to the police department and expressed that he was sorry for allowing minors to buy tobacco.
“The reason is because I am new at this and sometime I am too focusing on other things and neglect the ID checking,” Trinh wrote.
Trinh says he’s installed a camera to cut down on “human errors.”

Boston, Massachusetts February 1, 2010 – Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick submitted a $28.2 billion state budget for fiscal 2011 last week. To partially offset the three percent increase over 2010, Patrick’s budget proposal calls for raising the current 30 percent excise tax on cigars and smoking tobacco to 110 percent and 120 percent, respectively. The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association respectfully disagrees with this strategy.

“It’s outrageous to put the burden of budget management on the backs of cigar smokers. They ought to be finding jobs instead of creating job-killing new taxes,” said Chris McCalla, legislative director of the IPCPR.

The association represents some 2,000 members, most of whom are small business owners of mom-and-pop neighborhood cigar stores along with premium cigar manufacturers and distributors of related merchandise. Nearly 40 of those members reside, work and run their businesses in the state of Massachusetts.

McCalla pointed out that studies prove that higher taxes on tobacco products like premium cigars never produce the revenues they were designed to bring in. In fact, he said, they result in lower sales which cost jobs, closed businesses, and significantly reduce the very tax revenues for which they were originally created.

“When tobacco taxes go up, especially those on discretionary products like premium cigars which are enjoyed only occasionally, consumers will find less expensive sources for their favorite cigars. They will turn to the Internet and mail order as well as go across state borders or even resort to buying bootlegged products. That creates a lose-lose situation: neighborhood cigar retailers lose sales and the state loses all that tax revenue,” said McCalla.

According to McCalla, tobacco taxes are regressive and disproportionately burden lower- and middle-income earners, even among premium cigar smokers.

“Tobacco taxes also tend to be unreliable and unsustainable sources of revenue and don’t result in real budget fixes. They hurt local businesses and the overall economy. The unintended consequences for individual states and the American society as a whole can be avoided with application of sound fiscal policies and real budget reforms instead of bad tax policy,” McCalla said.