Range burglarized

[Noban]

I'm sad and angry to report that last night the Winchester Canyon Gun Club was robbed. We're located in Santa Barbara, CA. The perpetrators apparently hitched a chain to a 4WD and tore out a security door to the club house. They got four shotguns and some ammo, and also trashed the club house just to add insult to injury.

Those shotguns were purchased with NRA grant money and were getting a lot of use in our new youth shooting program. Three 870s and a Beretta semi-auto.

I can only hope that the mental midgets who did this try to sell the firearms through a dealer, or can't keep their mouths shut about their exploits.

 

[Control Group]

In the parlance of our times: that straight sucks.

How much will the insurance cover?

 

[Aguila Blanca]

Minor point -- you were not robbed, you were burgled.

When I read the title, my first thought was that someone walked in and held up the joint, and I was visualizing that commercial with the dumb guys trying to hold up the bar where all the off-duty cops hang out. So my reaction was "Who could be dumb enough to rob a place full of men with guns?"

 

[cidirkona]

Damn, that really sucks! I hope he/she/they get their justice...

-Colin

 

[g56]

I can only hope that the mental midgets who did this try to sell the firearms through a dealer, or can't keep their mouths shut about their exploits.

Chances are these will be sold on the street, and the barrels and stocks will probably be shortened with a hack saw.

Bragging about their activities is the most common method for catching burglars, they tell their friends, and sometime later one of them is willing to snitch to cut a deal to reduce their own charges.

 

[El Tejon]

g56, have you been hiding about my office listening again!

That stinks. Hope your club comes up with a more secure system.

 

[heypete]

Hope your club comes up with a more secure system.

It's hard to make systems secure (for a resonable cost) against chain-equipped vehicles yanking doors off. I suspect even a Browning Vault Door could be removed in this manner if a suitable vehicle was doing the pulling.

Of course, having a burglar alarm and maybe a few of those wireless X10 (or whatever) cameras feeding to a time-lapse/motion detecting VCR in another part of the building (perhaps in a small shed outside or something) would be helpful. Not very expensive, either.

 

[CB900F]

Fella's;

In my professional opinion, anyone who opens a Brownig RSC by yanking the door off with a chain & 4WD, immediatly qualifies as superior & devoted mental midget.

And no, I'm not a professional thief, I'm a professional locksmith who specializes in safe sales.

I also very much suspect the the Browning "Vault Door" being referred to is in fact, Browning's residential fire door.

When looking at purchasing either a vault door or safe, it very much pays to sift the sales hype & find out the differences. Suggestion, search RSC here at THR.

900F

 

[heypete]

In my professional opinion, anyone who opens a Brownig RSC by yanking the door off with a chain & 4WD, immediatly qualifies as superior & devoted mental midget.

And no, I'm not a professional thief, I'm a professional locksmith who specializes in safe sales.

I also very much suspect the the Browning "Vault Door" being referred to is in fact, Browning's residential fire door.

Just to clarify, I wasn't implying that the door that was yanked off in this situation was a Browning Security Door, but rather that even if such a door was in place, a suitable vehicle and chain would be adequate to forcibly remove this door and frame from the wall, if said removal was properly planned and executed.

I have no idea what door was removed in this particular burglarly.

 

[Noban]

To clarify, the door that was removed was a very heavy-duty fire door mounted in reinforced cinder block.

All of the doors to all the range buildings are similar in design, some even stronger. All of the doors have heavy duty key locks under welded shields that prevent crow bar access. A few years ago some one decided to try to shoot off one of the locks by placing a handgun under the shield, pointing at the lock and pulling the trigger. I didn't see the result, but am told that skin, meat and bone and a nice blood halo were left behind. The lock held up.

 

[CB900F]

Heypete;

Please read carefully. Noban didn't state in his original post what kind of door it was. You know that & I know that. You mentioned "Browning Vault Door". I understand that you did not mean to say that the door burgled was in fact a Browning door. However, when the term 'Browning Vault', door or otherwise, is mentioned, many folks tend to think of the containers Browning calls safes.

Now then; attempting to remove the door of an RSC or safe by the aforementioned method of chain & 4WD, is indeed an excellent example of drooling stupidity. Please note: I'm NOT calling you stupid. Fact: Browning does not build a vault door for sale to the general public. What they do build is their fire security door. It is not a vault door.

Nobar's club has had the point forcibly driven home that the construction of their present clubhouse is inadequate to provide security to their firearms. The least expensive way, (maybe, I'm not a contractor) to beef up the building, without a total raze & reconstruction, would seem to be to drop the largest practical rebar down the cores of the cinderblocks & then fill the cores with concrete. When the door is replaced, use more rebar to integrate the door into the web by welding whatever ties need to be placed. The problem is that there are upright bars, but no lateral bars. Still, it's better than nothing, does upgrade the strength of the structure, and is of moderate cost.

Would it be practical to keep the arms secured off site? If not, you may need an honest-to-God SAFE. PM me if your club decides it may wish to go in that direction.

900F

 

[YammyMonkey]

Really sorry to hear about that, too bad that some people think they deserve things that they really don't.

Would it be possible to alter the landscaping to prevent close vehicle access to the doors? Put down some of the big dam-construction sized boulders as landscaping maybe? Could also try concrete walls, walkways, fencing, decking on the building and trees in combination to make it too hard to get a vehicle close enough.

Would it be possible to have the doors set up with no handle on the outside? Just the regular heavy duty deadbolt head on the outside? Might have to make the doors inward swinging only, but that could help. Nothing to chain up to.

 

[Greybeard]

Sorry to hear about the losses. Another possible option: (check at least your state laws first): www.stopthecrime.com

 

[larry starling]

Sorry to hear about your missfortune, I hope these punks get caught!