19 May 2014 (13:57 UTC-07 Tango)/19 Rajab 1435/29 Ordibehesht 1393/21 Ji-Si 4712
“I seen a young kid, shaggy hair, ponytail looking thing, run out my garage door with my shotguns and rifles!”-Gun owner in Huntington, West Virginia
In the latest robbery of a gun owner, Huntington police used dogs to track the thief. They found three of the five stolen guns in a creek. The other two are still missing. The victim says he did not recognize the thief, but the only way the thief would have known where he kept his guns is that acquaintances of the victim, who knew where the guns were, told the criminal.
There’s a growing trend in the United States, especially in pro-gun states: There is an increase in burglaries against gun owners and police.
In Virginia, it turns out a stolen .357 SIG pistol belongs to a State Trooper. Augusta County Sheriff’s Office says they’ve turned up a complicated crime operation involving drugs, backstabbing and meat salesmen turned burglars. It turns out the door to door meat sales company was also home to a den of burglars, who were casing their victims’ homes while delivering meat products. At least two suspects have been arrested, and are cooperating with police.
Several car and home burglaries, targeting guns, might be directly connected to the meat delivery company. The suspects also admitted addiction to prescription drugs and admitted to stealing the state cop’s gun. The SIG has not been found. It turns out the state cop violated his agency’s policies by leaving the gun in his car, unattended.
In North Carolina, police in University City Division arrested several people who were specifically looking to steal guns from legal gun owners.
Gun store owners are reporting that their parking lot security cameras are catching burglars breaking into customers cars.
In Florida, over the weekend the Orlando Southern Knife and Gun Show was hit by burglars breaking into customers vehicles. Police say pistols and ammo, as well as eletronic devices, were stolen. A gun was also stolen inside the gun show.
Apparently the new trend for burglars is to look for any sign that the person who owns the vehicle is a gun owner, like pro-gun bumper stickers.
The Los Angeles Times claims to have seen a U.S. Department of Justice document that says the guns used by the alleged Boston Bombing suspects might have been stolen. The report says one man bought several guns legally in Maine. Apparently some of those guns ended up in the hands of local drug gangs, before winding up in Boston.
Something that’s been trending for awhile, burglars targeting gun stores, might be bigger than what’s being reported.
In Kansas, five people were arrested in connection to last month’s massive burglary of a Salina gun store. 140 guns were stolen, 73 were recovered.
In Colorado, Castle Rock cops used security camera video to catch burglars who hit the same gun store twice in one week. They said the two gun thieves were runaway teenagers living in a car, and could be involved in other crimes.
You have to wounder: Is there really a such a huge market for stolen guns that it’s driving thieves to get bigger and bolder in their thefts?
Of concern is the fact that many legal gun owners do not keep a record of their guns’ serial numbers. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says that thousands of guns are stolen every year, but that’s based on serial numbers that have been provided by the gun owner. The ATF says there are many more guns not considered stolen simply because gun owners can’t prove the gun is theirs because they did not keep a record of the serial number. This means there are hundreds, possibly thousands, of unclaimed guns sitting in police evidence vaults: “We encounter firearms all the time we believe to be stolen, but the victim didn’t have the serial number, and we can’t trace it back to them.”-Larry Amerson, Calhoun County Sheriff, Alabama