A resident of the 6800 block of 15th Avenue NE, just northeast of Roosevelt High School, reported a robbery at his residence on Friday, January 10, while he was at work. Among the stolen items were “20-25 handguns and 20 rifles and shotguns.”
View Burglary on Friday, January 10 in a larger map
In the police report narrative for the incident, the victim states that he left for work at 9 AM and returned around 2 PM and “found someone had gone through his house and stolen multiple items.” The victim had locked the house upon leaving in the morning, but had not set the alarm as he is in the process of moving. No forced entry into the house was found; however, the garage door can be opened by hand. This is how the victim believes the burglar both gained access and left.
Among the stolen items reported by the victim were near a dozen watches, cash in various places around the house as well as larger amounts in two small bags in the kitchen, and dozens of guns:
He said he had about 20-25 handguns and 20 rifles and shotguns. He could not name all the makes and models of the guns but said he would get them and send them in on a victim follow up. He stated that many of the handguns were from his Dad and Granddad and were from World War I and II. He said missing were a Colt .45, Webbly .357, Colt Huntsman .22, Luger, Walther, several Smith and Wesson to name a few. He stated he also had an AR-15 for one of the long guns. All the guns and handguns were in a closet in the bedroom or in drawers in a built in closet.
Also reported missing were 5-7 gym bags.
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Thank you to Michael Hawthorne of KOMO News for bringing this incident to our attention.
Another responsable gun owner.
We need a law making gun owners responsible for LOCKING UP their firearms. And frankly, I think it’s pure, spoiled gluttony to have more than one gun in a home. Put them in an appropriate storage facility, or part with them if you’re unable to appropriately secure your deadly weapons.
This owner has a responsibility to our community to be honest and open about any information that may be helpful to our police, such as, is there anyone who may have known about this stockpile?
40-45 firearms is gluttonous.
So is a meal with more than 500 calories. You are more likely to die of a medical condition related to obesity than a gun. I agree, that a responsible gun owner should lock up their weapons and I also agree that this gun owner should have had them secured, but what constitutes secured? Was there a Trigger lock on them? That’s secured isn’t it? Someone obviously knew that this person had weapons in their house, so it’s reasonable to theorize that even if the firearms had been in a safe, that wouldn’t have stopped them. Give a meth Addict a screwdriver, a putty knife and a safe with the potential for allot of firearms to sell or trade for drugs, and no matter the size or type of gun safe, it will be either breached or carried out to an awaiting stolen vehicle before you know it.
How unsafe and irresponsible to have so many guns that are not locked properly and to add further insult to not even have the house and garage properly locked and alarm set. I’m furious that so many guns were in our neighborhood and that now and even more unsafe person has walked away with the lot. This is not ok and something NEEDS to be done to ensure people are responsible and our community safe.
Hold on a moment. This person has, or had, how many weapons in their home? Are you kidding me? The government needs to restrict people being able to own that many, I can give two craps if that person is or was in law enforcement, ex-firefighter, etc! That should NOT be allowed! PERIOD!!!! Their fault they got robbed, because most likely it was known of their selection of weapons and how many.
Yes, and who is going to start the inspections to ensure that citizens only have the correct number of weapons in their household? Let me see if I get this correct, you want it illegal for a person to more than a certain number of guns in the possession/residence whatever. Hmmm It was illegal to break into this persons house. It was illegal to steal this persons weapons, it is illegal to be in possession of these stolen weapons. So yeah, making something illegal will stop the crime. Comments like this are why sensible people are so against any additional gun laws. The criminal ALREADY broke the law, what in the heck is going to stop him from breaking the law again? NOTHING.
“Thumbs up”
Resounding “thumbs down”.
Blunt instruments account for more deaths each year in the US than rifles (“assault” or otherwise) do: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/01/03/FBI-More-People-Killed-With-Hammers-and-Clubs-Each-Year-Than-With-Rifles
On the bright side, the US gun homicide rate is just half of what it was 20 + years ago: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homicide-rate-down-49-since-1993-peak-public-unaware/
Well, I sure hope they catch whoever stole from him. My father has a collection of guns himself, and I don’t find it irresponsible or scary; he’s just interested in the machinery. I don’t know why people are so concerned about the guy’s property and so seemingly unconcerned that some jerk broke into the guy’s house and stole from him. Then again, about the only way to get the Seattle police to take any property theft seriously is if there is a firearm involved… *sigh*
Actually, what’s more disturbing is that there was no sign of a break-in. So basically, this guy left his house unlocked (the garage door was not locked) with 40-ish guns available in it. That seems incredibly irresponsible.
The thieves could have picked the lock or used a bump key. Get on youtube and search for “bump key” you’ll never feel safe in your home again.
How does being in the process of moving have an impact on setting a home security alarm?
All firearms, regardless of quantity, need to be locked up in a gun safe, one securely bolted to the structure of the building. Gun safes are easily available and affordable.
There’s no excuse for allowing firearms to fall into the hands of a common burglar like happened here. After all the needless tragedies we’ve seen lately, we know the need to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, children, and the mentally troubled.
The gun owner’s home is his castle. Why should he have to lock up HIS guns in HIS house? What else should he have locked up? The cash or watches that were stolen? His books and personal papers? Or just the dangerous things like kitchen knives and poisonous household cleaners?
Instead of focusing on the criminals who are now heavily armed (as well as high on dope), the readers of this paper are trying to make the victim out to be the villain.
You and this victim may not be bothered by firearms falling into the wrong hands, but many of us are — especially the new victims who will suffer as a result. Everyone has a responsibility to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals, children, and the mentally ill. Read the news! Tragedies can be avoided.
I’m old enough to remember when the NRA was all about gun safety, and keeping your weapons locked up was lesson number one. Sad how times have changed.
People should also lock up their medications, so they don’t fall into the wrong hands and get stolen/sold, or misused.
It’s standard advice and good sense with medications and firearms.
SL,
Do you blame the rape victim too, because of her skirt length, because however long it was, it just wasn’t enough?
Should the owners of the roughly 21K cars stolen each year in WA, be held accountable for the crimes that their cars are subsequently used in, too?
No, such car owners should not.
Just to add, I don’t see the home owner as a villain here. But it is well-known that guns are dangerous and should be well secured. Gun advocates that take their responsibility of being a gun owner seriously (ie trigger locks, gun safes, not flaunting their arms, safe gun-handling, etc.) make it hard for the anti-gun people to get unnecessarily worked up about things. Gun owners that don’t take their responsibilities seriously make everyone else look bad and make the rest of us feel unsafe and more afraid of guns.
Twenty rifles, twenty handguns, five gym bags. Stolen in the middle of the day across the street from Roosevelt High School. Well, this sounds suspicious from a crime reporting standpoint. Forget the ridiculous amount of weaponry (but what if the Chinese come?), forget gun safes, trigger locks, limits on the quantity of gun ownership, and restrictions for gun ownership by the mentally ill. You’re telling me that somebody called the police and claimed that they left their house unlocked and now *40* guns are missing? Which house? Who lives there? How much can you sell 40 guns for? Bags of cash?! ‘Near a dozen watches?’ I’m sure someone in the PD is officially on this as this can’t be a run of the mill burglary.
Momma&wife – Nope. The number isn’t the problem, it’s who has them. If someone responsible wants to have guns, an ex-policeman or ex-fireman (not sure why those are your examples) for instance, they should be able to buy them, but they’re just as likely to misuse them as anyone else who isn’t mentally ill. What if they are sick? That’s what makes the difference in how they’re used, and in how they have to be treated as something for sale to the public.
Beth – We’re not concerned about the fact that your father is interested in guns for the machinery involved, we’re concerned that someone can potentially break in and take what he’s innocently interested in, sell them for profit, and that they may be used as a weapon to hurt or kill someone else without being able to be traced backed to the perpetrator. I think it’s great that your dad has a gun hobby, but to ignore the fact that he might have to take steps to protect it more than if it were a stamp collection is a terrible argument. If you’re satisfied with that you need to think more about the worst case scenario, as if those guns weren’t a trivial thing lying around in your father’s house, but because of a break in they suddenly were somewhere out in the neighborhood where you or your dad didn’t control them anymore.
Fireman – Your arguments are just the worst. ‘Some stuff’s illegal already, that didn’t work, so why have other laws to stop other dangerous things?’ That’s your point? ‘Comments like this are why sensible people are so against any additional gun laws’. What a jackass. There’s absolutely no reason to insist that the mentally ill should be allowed to purchase guns. Disagree? Please speak up! Sensible people, roughly 90% of those polled nationally, feel that there should be more restrictions on who can purchase guns. Not how many, not what kind, but who. If you’re not mentally ill, but worried it could be you, you’re paranoid. Another argument could be made for laws against the black market (or unregulated ‘gun show’) sale of firearms. Or some sort of regulations that wouldn’t allow guns to be ‘stolen’ from someone’s home. Get me? Pointless to argue that everything’s fine if there are 40 guns that are now ready to be used by ‘meth addicts’ for committing crime. Something has to change.
Getting back to my point, there has to be video from the cameras on the northeast side of the high school!
Well really glad that the tenant in that house is not a DRUG DEALER and that his duffle bags were not full of POUNDS OF HEROIN. It’s a nice change for that street because in the past Sisley has rented to GUN OWNING HEROIN DEALERS you have repeatedly SOLD DRUGS OUT OF THOSE HOUSES. Good thing the SPD is not ACTIVELY INVESTIGATING THE DRUG DEALING AND GUN RUNNING GOING ON ON THAT STREET. Sure is nice to know our neighbors ACROSS THE STREET FROM A SCHOOL are not doing anything suspicious…
Anonymous,
How EXACTLY do you plan on preventing a mentally ill person from purchasing a weapon? Background checks? It is already illegal for someone who is diagnosed with a number of mental illnesses to purchase a weapon. The problem is reporting and the HIPPA law. So it is already illegal. Background checks will do NOTHING to stop the possession or purchase of firearms by people who are not legally allowed to have them. You are delusional if you think differently. You call guns shows the “Black market” and yet have you ever been to one? Have you ever tried to purchase a firearm at a gun show or are you simply repeating the old tired liberal line of gun show loophole? The fact is, that gun shows in the State of Washington and Oregon and in fact many other states, require the vendors to have a FFL and to do FFL transfers (betting you have never gone through one of those either huh?). What you are referring to is a Private Sale between 2 people. If I want to sell my historic .50 caliber hunting rifle, I can do so to another person without having to go through an FFL (Look it up, because I am betting you have NO idea what a FFL is). Whether or not those private transactions should go through a FFL remains to be seen. The vast majority of guns used in the commission of crime are either stolen or were purchased legally and then used illegally. But I guess facts, logic and common sense don’t belong in your little slice of fantasy land that you reside in.
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