Denver, CO
Thieves break into Colorado smoke shop in Denver Santa Fe Arts District:
Property crime continues to be a major concern in the city of Denver. According to the city of Denver’s overall crime dashboard, more than 6,000 property crimes were committed in 2023 with 774 of those being burglaries.
So far this year, nearly 500 have hit the community. Popular smoke shop “Positive Vibes” on 674 Santa Fe Drive was recently targeted.
The shop has been on the block for only three months. Before this location, it was on South Broadway for six years.
“We are a high-end glass gallery and we are also for the people, we are for the community,” said Madison Dillard, co-owner of the shop.
From unique glass pieces to community-driven glass shows Dillard’s handmade creations at their Denver shop are as exquisite as they are expensive.
“This piece is about $5,500 and it comes with the case,” added Dillard while showing CBS News Colorado reporter Jasmine Arenas his heady pieces.
For that reason, shop owners made sure their shop was surrounded with security cameras, rails and locks.
“The worst part is we spent $30,000 on security and everything is barred up… we were waiting on that door and it should’ve been there a couple weeks ago,” said Dillard.
Through a lock on the main door, thieves were able to break into the shop over the weekend, hours before a community glass event.
“It was the worst feeling I had ever felt,” said Dillard.
Still, the owners of the shop remained optimistic and held their event on Saturday.
Surveillance video shows the moment thieves pulled up in scooters and broke into the shop. According to owners, the thieves left only to come back just 30 minutes later to take tens of thousands of dollars worth of products.
“It hurts a lot, it’s pretty much everything we have,” said Dillard.
If there is any silver lining in this chaos, Dillard shares it is the heavy community support.
The business posted a video on Instagram, racking up hundreds of thousands of views and support from the community.
“Honestly, if the community wasn’t supporting us and donating all this glass for this next show, I don’t know what we would be doing, the support is just overwhelming,” said Dillard.
Dillard shares it is not easy to resell those items that were stolen. Each piece is unique and the heady community is a pretty tight-knit group.
“If you try to sell, people are going to be like ‘that is not yours, that’s clearly Positive Vibes,”’ said Dillard.
He adds that the loyalty runs deep in this community.
“It is kind of like an unspoken thing in the heady community,” said Dillard.
Now, they’re hoping the community will help find whoever broke in and stole the unique pieces.
Positive Vibes is offering a $2,000 in-store credit reward to those with information leading to an arrest.
Denver police did not share much information on the investigation on Sunday, but investigators are working on the case.
Denverites looking for a stellar cup of Joe don’t need to travel far to savor the flavor of excellent coffee.
That’s according to The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops, a website that rates global hospitality establishments where coffee lovers can find better brew. The website recently announced its 2026 list of the best coffee shops in North America, Central America and the Caribbean and two local companies made the list.
Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters came in at No. 43, while Queen City Collective Coffee ranked No. 61. Not bad for a list that includes must-hit destinations in places like Guatemala and Costa Rica, which are known for their exports of coffee beans.
The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops decided the ranking through a mix of nominations and voting by both the public and experts. Places were evaluated based on the quality of coffee served, barista expertise, ambiance, sustainability practices, and innovation among other criteria, according to the website.
Sweet Bloom Coffee Roasters, which came on the scene in 2013, helped usher the so-called fourth wave of coffee locally, which focuses on honoring the beans’ agricultural roots and using techniques like pour-over to extract more flavor from each brew. The company started with a wholesale roastery and retail shop in Lakewood before expanding to Arvada through a merger with another company called Two Rivers, and later to Westminster. In 2022, Food and Wine magazine named Sweet Bloom’s Westminster locale the best coffee shop in Colorado.
Queen City Collective has certainly earned the popular vote among Mile High City coffee drinkers if the company’s expansion is an indication. Since opening its first retail location in 2018, in a spot shared with Novel Strand Brewing Co., Queen City has expanded to seven locations between Denver and surrounding suburbs, including Wheat Ridge and Aurora.
To see the full list of must-hit coffee shops across the globe, visit theworlds100bestcoffeeshops.com. For additional recommendations, check out our list of Colorado’s best coffee shops with picturesque patios and views.
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DENVER (KDVR) — With the mild winter and warm start to spring, beekeepers are seeing swarms earlier in the year and expect the season to be longer than usual.
Gregg McMahan is a dispatcher for the Colorado Swarm Hotline. It’s usually his job to send a beekeeper to collect a swarm when someone calls, but on Sunday afternoon, he decided to handle one himself.
“Nice little swarm,” McMahan said. “It’s tricky, though, because it’s hanging on a fence.”
A warm winter and spring mean swarm season has begun four weeks early.
“Never seen it like this ever,” McMahan said.
This call is to a house on Denver’s east side. When McMahan arrived, he saw a swarm had taken up residence on the fence.
“Absolutely typical, it is on the small side,” McMahan said.
He got to work, first luring them into a box when he spotted a good sign.
“See all these girls, they got their butts up, they’re fanning their wings. That’s telling us the queens in here,” McMahan said.
With the queen in hand, the rest began to follow her into the box.
McMahan said two years ago, he had 400 calls like this. Last year, only 100, the Swarm Hotline was as unpredictable as the weather, which has caused bee activity earlier in the year than ever.
“It makes it hard on the bees, you know? Two days ago, I’m collecting swarms in the snow,” McMahan said.
Rescuing them is integral to Colorado’s ecosystem. McMahan hopes people give a beekeeper a call instead of spraying them or harming them in any other way.
“They do a phenomenal amount of pollination within this state. Not only our native flowers but all the other flowers that people bring in,” McMahan said.
Slowly but surely, the swarm left the fence and moved into the box. McMahan loaded them into his truck to deliver them to their new home.
“Westminster to the Stanley Lake Wildlife Refuge, so these girls will have lakefront property tonight,” he said.
As he wrapped up, McMahan’s phone was buzzing more than the bees. Just another call to start a swarm season, he thinks, could be a long one.
“This year I’m already 20 swarms deep, so I’m expecting way more than 100 this year,” McMahan said.
To have a bee swarm removed for free from your property anywhere statewide, the Swarm Hotline number is 1-844-SPY-BEES.
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