I live right behind (50M, tops) a gunstore/pet shop, and my landlord is the owner of the store. I woke up around 11:30pm from a nap, and just a few mintes later, the alarm in the store goes off. I called 911, told them the situation as I knew it, plus my name and description, and told them that I would be waiting for the responding Deputy in front of the store, and asked them to make sure to tell him that I would be armed. So out the door I went, scooping up the AR as I went.

The Cop arrives about 15 minutes later (K9 unit), and I guess the dispatcher told him what I asked, because he didn't really pay a whole lot of attention to my carbine, other than to ask me if it was full-auto, and commenting on my "nice gun". He asked me if anybody was inside, and I said that as far as I knew, there wasn't, but since it didn't take me more than a single minute to get there, he'd better be careful. He went in to check the place out *with weapon HOLSTERED* (), but whover it was had hauled ass. They had driven a truck of some sort into the front door, and used a gold club to smash one of the cases that hold handguns during business hours. Fortunately, the owner takes all handguns out of their cases, and locks them in a safe at COB, so all they managed to get were 3 Nikon scopes. The detective & the crime scene guy showed up after about a half hour, and went over the place, recovering the gold club from the floor in front of the busted case. They figure that the bad guys may have heard it when I slammed my door as I was leaving the house, because they only had time to smash the one case, and left in a big hurry (I heard a vehicle leaving as I got about halfway to the store). Interestingly, nobody ever asked me to put my weapon down through all this, but I got tired of holding it, and put it on the first Cop's hood.

I finally got in touch with the owner after about an hour and a half, and he showed up. He and the Cops went over everything and verified that no weapons were missing, did the report thing, etc etc, while I stood outside, watching for a black truck with heavy front end damage to drive by (ya never know-brain-dead may want to sneak by to take a look at the goings-on). Myself and the owner spent the next 2 hours or so cleaning up broken glass, and doing what we could to secure the entrance. He's staying the rest of the night inside, and I'll be checkin in on him from time to time, just to be safe. If he isn't able to get the door replaced tomorrow, I'll be spending tomorrow night sitting watch inside the store.

The owner has told the Cops that I'm the caretaker of the store while he's away, and has given me the run of the place, if anything happens again (and it will, he's been broken into 38 times).

The Cops were all cool with me being armed, and all of them liked my carbine.

Hint for the Cops: C'mon, fellas...answering a call for anything, if ya have to enter a dark building, how 'bout having your weapon READY, would ya? Jeez...

Hint for everybody else: Whatever you use for home defense, put a light of some sort on that rascal.

I just gotta say stay safe Zardoz since it sounds like it happens alot..

Maybe he should put some concrete post in the areas a car could bust through?

Quoted: Maybe he should put some concrete post in the areas a car could bust through?

Me and the Cops discussed that very subject, but I forgot to bring it up with the owner. I will when I go check on him, though.

… Late night, stolen-truck, smashing into gun stores seems to be mode operandi in many high dollar burglaries. Hard to defend against them. Your quick response with AR15 in tow is a grand example of citizenship at its finest!

…. Regardless of outcome, I commend your authoritative reaction.

Quoted: Quoted: Maybe he should put some concrete post in the areas a car could bust through? Me and the Cops discussed that very subject, but I forgot to bring it up with the owner. I will when I go check on him, though.

Roll-down steel doors. The initial price and install is expensive, but for a high profile target like a gun shop there's no reason to settle for less. He may be able to get an insurance break too.

I agree with the doors, plus every 7-11 has those steel and concrete posts to stop cars he might wanna consider it I mean 38 times!!!! It would pay to have guard with those odds. Oh what kinda "carbine" did you use, you mean like an M1?

Good one to protect the door here

Edited to add : oops that place is in europe..

The carbine is a BM 14.5-inch barreled M4gery.

Winston, thanks for the compliment, btw.

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