17 handguns stolen in robbery
Published 3:52 am Thursday, December 6, 2018
By Titus Mohler and Emily Hollingsworth
The Farmville Herald
A robbery early Saturday morning at Millbrook Country Corner, located at 3633 S. James Madison Highway in Buckingham County, resulted in 17 handguns being stolen. Police are continuing to search for the three individuals involved, offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information in connection with the robbery.
The investigation is being conducted by the Buckingham County Sheriff’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
According to a news release from the ATF, the bureau is working with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms industry, to provide the reward.
Clint Roach, owner of the Millbrook Country Corner store, explained what happened Saturday based on security video footage and his personal account.
“Saturday morning at 1:34 a.m. is when the alarm went off, and the alarm company called me immediately and asked if it was legitimate, which is standard operating procedure for them, and I said it was, so they called the police to dispatch them,” he said.
He noted that the video footage illustrates there were actually three people involved in the theft, though it had been reported that it was only two.
“It was actually three people that came onto the premises, but only two entered into the building,” he said. “And those two, they had to pound through the laminated glass that I have on the door, and once they got through that, they went to the safety glass that I have back there in the back. It’s 3/8-inch thick to try to prevent somebody breaking it, and they broke through that. Of course, they were using a probably 10-pound splitting maul, which I’m guessing on the weight, but it was definitely a splitting maul to break through all of this.”
“They cleaned out three different sections of the guns that I had on display back there, and then they exited back through the bottom of the door,” he added.
The video footage shows the burglars wore masks, one of which was a monkey mask.
From start to finish, the robbery took place in a little more than a minute, Roach said.
“They got 17 handguns, and when I arrived on the scene, of course, they were all gone, and law enforcement arrived right behind me,” he said. “(It was) about seven minutes after the alarm went off when we got there.”
A representative with the Buckingham County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that this is not the first robbery at Millbrook Country Corner that has resulted in a theft of firearms, citing a June 27, 2017, reported burglary that took place at the store. According to a previous Herald report, seven handguns were stolen in the June 2017 burglary. There were also reported burglaries in March and August of 2014 that resulted in stolen cigarettes and a July 2017 attempted burglary with damage to property.
Roach noted that burglars have adapted to security upgrades he has made.
“They stole multiple firearms 18 months ago, and at that time I did not have laminated glass on the front of the building,” he said. “I had plate glass. We upgraded that to try to prevent them from coming in, and at that time, they did not break the safety glass on the gun case. They collapsed it in. They broke the wood behind it that was holding it in. So we beefed up the wood behind it so that they couldn’t break the wood behind it anymore, and we changed the laminated glass to try to prevent them from coming through the glass as quickly. And of course, this time they upgraded their tools to accomodate what we upgraded.”
This was one of the details that signaled to Roach the level of premeditation that went into the latest burglary.
“They had obviously planned it out to know, for one, to bring something heavy enough to break through the laminated glass and heavy enough to break through the safety glass that I had on the guns,” he said. “They would not have probably gotten in with a hammer or something like that because of the glass that I used to build those things. The tools that they brought told me, in itself, that they had done enough research to know that.”
“Also, when they entered into the building, they did not look around to find anything,” he continued. “They knew right where everything was, so they had obviously been there before at some point in time to case the place …”
In a report by the television station WTVR, CBS 6, ATF agent Scott Fulkerson outlined the stakes of a burglary like this when he said that “the concern is these guns that are stolen are not being used in somebody’s backyard for target practice. They are being stolen for the specific reason because they can’t buy them for themselves and they are being quickly funneled into the criminal element. It’s been our experience within hours of these thefts, these guns are being used in violent crimes here in our own community.”
Anyone with information about this crime should contact the ATF by calling 1-800-ATF-GUNS (800-283-4867), emailing ATFTips@atf. gov or contacting the ATF through its website at www.atf.gov/contact/ atf-tips.
Tips can also be submitted to the ATF by using the ReportIt app or by visiting www.reportit. com. People can also provide information by contacting the Buckingham County Sheriff’s Office tip line at (434) 969-1772. All calls and tips will be kept confidential, the ATF release cited.
Two clips of security video footage of Saturday’s burglary can be viewed through links found at Millbrook Country Corner’s Facebook page.
Making an appeal to the public, Roach said, “Take a look at the video, take a look at anything that the ATF and local law enforcement is putting out there. Watch your surroundings, see if you see anything or pick up on anything to help us catch these guys. They’ve got guns out on the street in a bad way, and that’s what we’re trying to prevent in everything that we do, and anything that anybody can do to help us find these people and get these guns back will greatly be appreciated.”