THORNTON, Colo. (CBS4) – Police are searching for a burglar who stole 35 guns from a pawn shop in Thornton.
A surveillance camera captured video of a man burglarizing Jumping Jack Cash on Washington Street near 88th Avenue around 3:20 a.m. Tuesday.
(credit: ATF)
The break-in is one of several gun store burglaries around the Denver metro area in recent months, including two in the Littleton area in June.
Investigators do not believe those burglaries are related to the most recent gun shop break-in, because the methods of operation are very different.
Police are asking for the public’s help to identify the latest suspect. The video shows him looking around with what appears to be a cellphone flashlight and pulling things off shelves. Officials said that he got away with 35 handguns, shotguns and rifles, along with some electronics and toys.
The burglary is part of a local uptick in gun thefts that mirrors a national trend. According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, almost 170 firearms had been stolen so far in 2016 from licensed gun dealers in the Denver metro area. That number was already well above the 121 firearms stolen in all of 2015 across the entire state of Colorado.
Lisa Meiman, a public information officer with ATF said that the increase was alarming.
“Any time you see even one firearm (stolen), we consider that too many because we know that these firearms are destined for the criminal world,” Meiman said.
She said that last year, 1,600 of the guns recovered from crime scenes were stolen.
The crimes that firearms are used in are often violent.
“It could be an aggravated assault, armed robberies, even homicides,” said Meiman. “People’s lives are at risk when these firearms are stolen and put into criminal hands.”
For that reason, investigators are working to catch the suspect as soon as possible in order to recover the stolen guns before they can be sold to or traded with other criminals.
Even though only one suspect was caught on camera, investigators said that he may have had an accomplice due to the large quantity of firearms that were stolen.
Melissa Garcia has been reporting for CBS4 News since March 2014. Find her bio here, follow her on Twitter @MelissaGarciaTV, or send your story idea to mkgarcia@cbs.com.
