07-07-2025
Local firework stand rocked by ‘wild' early morning robbery
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Freedom Family Fireworks' tent at the corner of Highway 291 and Highway 210 in River Bend was robbed on Friday morning, according to the Sugar Creek Police Department.
Around 5 a.m., officers responded to the tent, where they say three men, two wearing masks, robbed the temporary tent the morning of July 4.
The owner of Freedom Family Fireworks says that his employee was held at gunpoint and handcuffed while the robbers stole their products, although SCPD could not confirm that information to FOX4 on Saturday.
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Taylor Gray, the owner, says that his employee was rattled by what happened.
'You know, he's in tears,' Gray said.
'It was. It was that gut-wrenching drive for all of 30 seconds. You're like, 'What happened?' You can't get a hold of anybody, but we're just thankful everybody came out okay,' he said.
He said he was called around 4:30 in the morning and immediately knew that something was wrong.
'I've never seen anything like this, man,' Gray said.
'It's been wild. We've had employees overnight steal from us before, but we've never had anything held up like this. It was scary. It's been tough on everybody.'
Photos that Gray provided to FOX4 show a white SUV entering their parking lot around the same time as the robbery. Especially since it happened on July 4, Gray said it was a massive blow to the team.
'You're celebrating America's birthday, right? It's supposed to be fun. The kids come out; that's why we do this, right? To make everybody happy. And something like this happens, especially the morning of the 4th of July, you know, really kind of put a damper on everybody.'
Gray said the items they took would not have made much resale money.
'This wasn't robbing me to go sell it to pay bills,' he said.
'This was 'They just, they did it to do it'. And it's not okay. They took one of my big packs and then they just went shopping for all that small stuff they wanted.'
Gray is offering a cash reward of $2,000 for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of the thieves.
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'I don't care about the products. I care about what they did to my teammate,' he said.
'We want to make sure we want to help get these people off the street, you know, and it's just not okay. Fireworks are replaceable where people are not. And that's all that matters.'
Sugar Creek Police are continuing their investigation into the incident.
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