GREELEY — You may have seen glass pipes inside a display case next to a convenience-store register.
They’re supposed to be used for tobacco and are typically marketed for that purpose.
But a Greeley man says they’re used for much more and made that point at a convenience store in a violent way.
At Sherry’s Market in Greeley, customer David Scott is not welcome back after smashing every glass pipe in the store.
Surveillance video shows him at the counter starting to grab a display case full of pipes.
“I tilted it back,” he said.
“Then he just tore it off the shelf and threw it on the floor,” store clerk Irving Payne said.
Scott says he did it because his stepbrother took just one hit using a similar pipe and got hooked on methamphetamine.
He said his own kids should not have such easy access.
“Meth is terrible; it scares me,” Scott said. “. . . They said that they make a lot of money off of selling these pipes.”
But Mo Choudry, the owner of the store, said: “People have no right to come in, be violent and make a point.”
He says he’s simply out to make money, and what people do with the pipes is their business.
“For my customers to go down the street and buy this thing, and buy the other products — their pack of cigarettes, candy bar or soda, or something, I lose business,” Choudry said.
It is legal to sell glass pipes to kids younger than 18.
“There’s no state law right now that says that he cannot sell it to a 10-year-old,” Scott said.
“We are not even required to check ID on glass pipes,” Choudry said. “But we do it anyway just to make sure.”
Whatever point Scott was trying to make, it only drove home that he’s no longer welcome.
“He essentially wasted his and our time, and that’s all he accomplished,” Payne said.
Yet the accomplishment for him is yet to come.
“That was my way of making a statement, for someone to see this action and maybe come up with a different way of keeping pipes away from kids,” Scott said. “They are ruining people’s lives.”
Scott was charged with criminal mischief and faces a $150 fine.
