An unarmed guard and the 34 Glock handguns
By ANGELA KAMPER Police Reporter
September 5, 2003
THE security guard at an innocuous suburban shop front was a day late.
This was where 34 handguns were stolen in an armed robbery on Sunday night.
Police revealed yesterday that one unarmed guard was working alone when two men wearing balaclavas and wielding a handgun held up the premises in Miller Rd, Chester Hill.
The bandits forced the employee to open the safe, which contained 31 Glock pistols and three revolvers.
They put the guns in a large silver bag before taking off.
Police Minister John Watkins asked Commissioner Ken Moroney to suspend the licence of Obliging Security Services yesterday after the robbery was revealed in yesterday's Daily Telegraph.
The company was the subject of a security audit by police in August last year and met all the requirements of the Fire Arms Act.
This wasn't enough to keep thieves from breaking into the premises at 11.45pm.
Mr Watkins said he would be looking at changing the Act to introduce mandatory time delay locks on safes, surveillance cameras and better staffing of security offices where guns are held.
"If a crackdown on the security industry, or greater penalties for failing to secure weapons, puts people out of business – then they don't deserve to be in business anyway," Mr Watkins said.
"There's two possibilities here – they didn't follow the rules and are to blame, or they did and the rules aren't tough enough. Whatever the case, I'm changing that from today. It's a sad fact that there's a growing black market in handguns.
"Every gun police take off the streets makes the price of another illegal gun go up."
The theft comes after five shooting incidents in the past week, including the death of Greenacre father of four Ali Abdulrazak, who was shot at least 10 times while sitting in his car outside a Lakemba mosque. Police do not believe the gun theft is related to these incidents, but are concerned about the guns being sold on the black market.
"The firearm squad is investigating the armed robbery," Superintendent Helen Begg said.
"Police are determined to locate these weapons. We are very, very concerned that they are on the street and we would ask anyone with information to contact us. We were made aware of the theft on Sunday evening and commenced investigations immediately."
Police did not reveal that the theft had occurred until they were contacted by The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.
Wouldn't you think the police would be keeping track of how Commercial Multiple Handgun owners secure their Guns as opposed to wasting time implementing government policies that don't serve any sane purpose.
No wonder they didn't want to disclose what took place.
By ANGELA KAMPER Police Reporter
September 5, 2003
THE security guard at an innocuous suburban shop front was a day late.
This was where 34 handguns were stolen in an armed robbery on Sunday night.
Police revealed yesterday that one unarmed guard was working alone when two men wearing balaclavas and wielding a handgun held up the premises in Miller Rd, Chester Hill.
The bandits forced the employee to open the safe, which contained 31 Glock pistols and three revolvers.
They put the guns in a large silver bag before taking off.
Police Minister John Watkins asked Commissioner Ken Moroney to suspend the licence of Obliging Security Services yesterday after the robbery was revealed in yesterday's Daily Telegraph.
The company was the subject of a security audit by police in August last year and met all the requirements of the Fire Arms Act.
This wasn't enough to keep thieves from breaking into the premises at 11.45pm.
Mr Watkins said he would be looking at changing the Act to introduce mandatory time delay locks on safes, surveillance cameras and better staffing of security offices where guns are held.
"If a crackdown on the security industry, or greater penalties for failing to secure weapons, puts people out of business – then they don't deserve to be in business anyway," Mr Watkins said.
"There's two possibilities here – they didn't follow the rules and are to blame, or they did and the rules aren't tough enough. Whatever the case, I'm changing that from today. It's a sad fact that there's a growing black market in handguns.
"Every gun police take off the streets makes the price of another illegal gun go up."
The theft comes after five shooting incidents in the past week, including the death of Greenacre father of four Ali Abdulrazak, who was shot at least 10 times while sitting in his car outside a Lakemba mosque. Police do not believe the gun theft is related to these incidents, but are concerned about the guns being sold on the black market.
"The firearm squad is investigating the armed robbery," Superintendent Helen Begg said.
"Police are determined to locate these weapons. We are very, very concerned that they are on the street and we would ask anyone with information to contact us. We were made aware of the theft on Sunday evening and commenced investigations immediately."
Police did not reveal that the theft had occurred until they were contacted by The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.
Wouldn't you think the police would be keeping track of how Commercial Multiple Handgun owners secure their Guns as opposed to wasting time implementing government policies that don't serve any sane purpose.
No wonder they didn't want to disclose what took place.
