Achilles11B
New member
A warning in advance: this thread might not be appropriate for this forum. Just saying.
Ok, here goes:
This last Sunday, I went to the local range with a friend and came back to find that my apartment had been broken in to. The thief knocked out the screen of my second-story window (between 10am and 3pm on a Sunday, no less) and tok my laptop, my TV, both my guitars and my AR15. I made a police report, they came and did a walk-through of the apartment. I gave them the SN of the AR and an investigator came in and dusted for prints and took my prints and DNA. Thankfully, I had decided that morning to take my Garand with me.
Monday, I went to knock out a few errands and decided to hit up the local Guitar Center and lo and behold, someone is trying to sell my guitar to them. I approached him and said I had a friend who has been looking for a guitar like that. He was kind enough to let me take a picture of him and give me his name and number. I said I'm going to step outside and call him real quick. As soon as I got outside I called the police. Before I could finish with them, the stolen-guitar dealer came outside so I had to cut it short. I told him my friend was at work but he would hear from me when I heard back from my friend and got in my car to leave. I saw them head to a white SUV and made note of the license plate on my way out. I drove away for about a mile or so before turning around...and headed to the police car sitting in the parking lot across from the Guitar Center. I parked out of view of the store and approached the cruiser on foot. I knocked on the window and informed the police officer of the situation.
To make a long story not quite so long, one of my guitars and my laptop (which was in the white SUV) was recovered that day. My second guitar, TV, and rifle was recovered Tuesday. The police are currently keeping the TV and second guitar to be processed before being released. The rifle is going to the Ballistics section to be tested and won't be returned for another six weeks.
The police have informed me today that the thief has been arrested and has multiple warrants out for him. The state of Missouri punishes Class C felonies with up to 7 years imprisonment and a $5000.00 fine.
Here's what I picked up from the whole thing. Some of it re-enforced what I already knew, and others were learned the hard way, but hopefully this helps out everyone here:
1) No matter how unlikely it may be, if someone can get in to your place, they will. Sunday afternoon, broad daylight, second story apartment and it was still broken in to.
2) For you apartment-dwellers, if your place won't let you have a gun safe, at a bare minimum keep your firearms hidden. They missed the Mossberg 500 in the closet because it was in a dark blue case in a dark area.
3) Keep firearm SN's handy.
4) Don't steal from veterans. We can make a little luck go a long way.
Ok, here goes:
This last Sunday, I went to the local range with a friend and came back to find that my apartment had been broken in to. The thief knocked out the screen of my second-story window (between 10am and 3pm on a Sunday, no less) and tok my laptop, my TV, both my guitars and my AR15. I made a police report, they came and did a walk-through of the apartment. I gave them the SN of the AR and an investigator came in and dusted for prints and took my prints and DNA. Thankfully, I had decided that morning to take my Garand with me.
Monday, I went to knock out a few errands and decided to hit up the local Guitar Center and lo and behold, someone is trying to sell my guitar to them. I approached him and said I had a friend who has been looking for a guitar like that. He was kind enough to let me take a picture of him and give me his name and number. I said I'm going to step outside and call him real quick. As soon as I got outside I called the police. Before I could finish with them, the stolen-guitar dealer came outside so I had to cut it short. I told him my friend was at work but he would hear from me when I heard back from my friend and got in my car to leave. I saw them head to a white SUV and made note of the license plate on my way out. I drove away for about a mile or so before turning around...and headed to the police car sitting in the parking lot across from the Guitar Center. I parked out of view of the store and approached the cruiser on foot. I knocked on the window and informed the police officer of the situation.
To make a long story not quite so long, one of my guitars and my laptop (which was in the white SUV) was recovered that day. My second guitar, TV, and rifle was recovered Tuesday. The police are currently keeping the TV and second guitar to be processed before being released. The rifle is going to the Ballistics section to be tested and won't be returned for another six weeks.
The police have informed me today that the thief has been arrested and has multiple warrants out for him. The state of Missouri punishes Class C felonies with up to 7 years imprisonment and a $5000.00 fine.
Here's what I picked up from the whole thing. Some of it re-enforced what I already knew, and others were learned the hard way, but hopefully this helps out everyone here:
1) No matter how unlikely it may be, if someone can get in to your place, they will. Sunday afternoon, broad daylight, second story apartment and it was still broken in to.
2) For you apartment-dwellers, if your place won't let you have a gun safe, at a bare minimum keep your firearms hidden. They missed the Mossberg 500 in the closet because it was in a dark blue case in a dark area.
3) Keep firearm SN's handy.
4) Don't steal from veterans. We can make a little luck go a long way.