Twenty years ago a SWAT team of FBI agents headed for training left all their gear in an SUV overnight in a motel parking lot. Yup, everything, including all their weapons, i.e., full auto, gas grenades, etc., stolen with the SUV.
As I recall, two years ago an FBI sniper lost his rifle when it was stolen from his vehicle.
Guess not much has been learned about walking away from a vehicle with weapons in it. The rule of the agency I worked for was never to leave a weapon in our private vehicle off duty, or suffer the dire consequences if it was lost.
Here's the article from back then re: the stolen SWAT SUV:
FBI SWAT Van Is Stolen, Stripped of Its Weapons
Crime: Truck is found burned after guns, other assault gear are taken in theft at Memphis hotel.
June 04, 1997|
From Associated Press
MEMPHIS — An FBI SWAT van was stolen from a hotel parking lot, stripped of weapons, ammunition and assault gear and then burned, officials said Tuesday.
The gutted shell of the GMC Suburban was found in a poor industrial neighborhood in north Memphis, minus M-16 and MP-5 rifles, grenade launchers, tear gas equipment, ammunition, helmets and bulletproof vests with the FBI insignia.
The van was stolen overnight from a Budgetel hotel on the eastern edge of Memphis. FBI agents from Little Rock had brought the van and the weapons to town to attend an anti-terrorism training exercise.
No arrests had been made and authorities were searching for the weapons Tuesday, said John W. Hancock, in charge of the FBI's Memphis office.
