Good News

A

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. :D
 
Wooo, hooooo, . . . good news like that always makes my day.

Good advice on the stashing / hiding / disguising or something of the firearms if you cannot do the old gun safe thing.

Too many people have em sitting in corners or worse yet, in glass door wooden gun cases or up on the wall in wall racks.

May God bless,
Dwight
 
Good work, nice timing being at the right place at the right time. Still, doesn't make up for fact that your space was broken into...violated.

You really exercised restraint and did the right thing. I would like to think that I could do the same if I were in your shoes....well done.
 
Great story! You might drop by the DA's office and let him know how glad you are that this guy will be behind bars for SEVEN years.
 
Good work. My first reaction would have been to grab another guitar and bash it over his head. You are clearly cooler headed than me.

I hope he gets the full sentence.

Btw, while growing up in NYC we were robbed. We lived on the 6th floor. Some animal stretched from the fire escape to the next window and climbed in. This was 6 stories up and a distance of maybe 6 feet. I happened to be walking my two pit bulls at the time. Boy I wish I was home. My mother lost about $40k in jewelry.
 
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Sucks that you had to go through that, but it shows the importance of keeping records of serial numbers, photos, and other identifying information.

I had a similar experience with a stolen car. The officer who took the report told me the car had probably been taken to another county to a chop shop. So, a buddy and I rode up there to look around. As we got into town we saw a LEO and stopped to tell them what had a happened. As I described the car he said he had just seen it and he took off with lights & sirens a blazing. They called a few hours later and told me to come get my car.
 
Just goes to show that the mind is a more powerful weapon than any destructive device known to man.

They had you rifle, but you had a brain. Congrats on your exceptional use of wit and cunning.
 
Outstanding!!! Your composure and presence of mind are to be commended. Fast thinking. I don't think I could have pulled that off nearly as smoothly as you did. Congratulate yourself, and reward yourself. You earned it, and deserve it!
 
Great story! You might drop by the DA's office and let him know how glad you are that this guy will be behind bars for SEVEN years.
Click to expand...

I think that was UP to 7 yrs. maximum if I understand correctly (no guarantee:D) If he's sentenced to that amount, typically, the thief can be out, once again, victimizing you and me in a lot less.

And if I visited the DA, it would be to strongly indicate my opposition to any plea bargains.:cool:

This incident was well handled, the criminal was caught. That's the main thing for now. :)
 
Always good to hear a happy ending.

Curious, did you happen to find out how they got in your place?

Being on the second story of a converted house myself, I habitually leave windows open for the breeze.

But the only guns I ever have out in the open is a 10-15 year old air rifle and the edc I set on the coffee table when I get home.
 
They pulled out the screen on the bedroom window. I had it open to get some air through the apartment. Needless to say, the window stays closed unless I'm home. I'm OK being without the AR for a month and a half. It just means that I'll be using the Garand for HD for a little bit. Not optimal, sure, but I imagine it will still be effective.
 
Wow, get up there via an awning or eave am guessing.

Live on 2nd floor of a converted house myself - windows are almost always open to catch the breeze off the lake. After reading your post yesterday the ones with climbable items underneath them were closed and screwed shut
 
First, congratulations again on how well you handled the situation, when you encountered the thief with your guitar. Cool head, good thought process and execution.

Second, if you can't have a safe, have you considered a cable lock, like a heavy duty bike lock, and locking your receiver via the trigger guard to some heavy piece of furniture, or maybe a stack of 45lb or 100lb weight plates (as for a bench press barbell)? BG may know how to break down the AR and still steal the upper, but then again he may not.

Edit: It occurs to me that this could be a pretty valuable thread, but that it might be better in the General Discussion forum. OP, you might want to ask one of the mods to move it.
 
Good idea MLeake...let me see if I can enhance it a bit.Yes, remove the bolt carrier, run the cable lock up the mag well and out the ejection port...then through the 200 lbs of free weights. Now you have both the lower and the upper secured.

Or better yet...buy a safe. And a dog. :)
 
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