The owner of a gun gallery says they are beefing up security after thieves made off with several weapons in a brazen break and enter.
Police were called to the Calgary Shooting Centre, at 7130 Fisher Road S.W., on Thursday at about 4:15 a.m. after an alarm went off at the facility.
The culprits used a vehicle to smash through the front of the building and then shattered display cases to grab dozens of firearms.
They got away before police arrived.
James Bachynsky is one of the owners and says he is sick to his stomach over the smash and grab.“Sick to our stomachs, collectively. We’ve only been open a year and a half. We’ve spent almost a year working and planning and getting the business up and running, building the business, we just got to the point where we had our heads above water and we weren’t working twelve hours a day.”
Bachynsky says the firearms facility employs 18 people and he does not believe this was an inside job.
“As soon as we saw that the building had been breached, we knew that something had been taken,” said Bachynsky. “We assume they weren’t stolen for good purposes so we want them off the streets as quickly as possible and we’re hoping that the police can do that.”
He won't say how many weapons were stolen but says his company is cooperating with the investigation and is working to improve security.
“Obviously the first thing we had to do was assess exactly what had been taken. We came in and conducted a hundred percent taking, within hours, and by about 9 or 10 in the morning we had all the details on the guns that were taken for police,” said Bachynsky.
Bachynsky says they know exactly what was taken but have been asked by police to keep the details under wraps.
The shooting facility will be beefing up security to prevent a similar event from happening in the future.
Police are now reviewing surveillance tapes from the area.
Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact police at 403-266-1234, or Crime Stoppers anonymously using any of the following methods:
TALK: 1-800-222-8477
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TEXT: tttTIPS to 274637
