Pot Shop Owner Pulls Out Gun While Customers Present: Des Plaines PD

DES PLAINES, IL — The owner and sole employee of a local cannabis dispensary is facing several charges after reportedly pulling out a gun while customers were in the store and refusing to leave the business for several hours with police on the scene. Daniel J. Nardo, 33, of the 900 block of Des Plaines, is accused of two counts of aggravated assault and one count of disorderly conduct stemming from the incident Thursday at UP LLC, 1173 S. Elmhurst Road.

Nardo was released following his arrest and is due back in court on July 10.

Police were dispatched to the store at 1:41 p.m. after a 22-year-old female customer said Nardo was at the business ingesting "helium" and had held up a shotgun, "racking" it, or pulling the slide of the gun back, several times. Police later found several empty cans of nitrous oxide in a garbage can at the business.

The woman, who had earlier entered the store with a 20-year-old male, had left UP LLC when she made the call to police. She said the two had taken an Uber to the store to buy cannabis, had frequented the store in the past, and knew Nardo from past interactions there.

After arriving at the dispensary and while perusing the cannabis selection, they saw Nardo ingesting what they believed to be helium or nitrous oxide. After making their selection and approaching the checkout counter, the male customer was on his phone and reportedly began laughing at the conversation he was having. He continued with his conversation and walked out of the store.

With the female customer was still at the checkout counter, she said Nardo became irate, saying, "what's so funny" and "I'm like that" in reference to being a "gangster." He then reportedly went into the rear of the shop and returned with what the female believed was a shotgun. Nardo racked the weapon and pointed it toward the entrance of the business where the male customer had just exited.

Nardo eventually put the weapon down, at which time the male re-entered the business. Nardo then became irate again, retrieved the weapon and racked it several more times. The female and male left money for their product and quickly exited the business, before calling for police assistance.

Police began speaking with Nardo in an attempt to have him exit the business. Nardo eventually
exited the store at 5:13 p.m., more than three hours after police arrived at the scene. He was taken into custody, without incident.

Police obtained a search warrant for the business and found several replica air-soft type guns, including one long-gun style replica, which can be "racked."