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Thieves steal 33 firearms from Wesley Chapel gun shop by breaching wall — again

 
A hole where burglars broke into the Grey Wolf Armory in Wesley Chapel on Sunday to steal weapons is covered up on Monday.
A hole where burglars broke into the Grey Wolf Armory in Wesley Chapel on Sunday to steal weapons is covered up on Monday.
Published May 3, 2016

WESLEY CHAPEL — The last time this happened, Jeff Webb lost only one gun.

His gun shop, Grey Wolf Armory, was targeted March 14 by thieves who smashed a hole in the side of his building with a hammer. The alarm system, though, did its job: the burglars were scared away after stealing just a single handgun.

This time, Webb got hit hard. Early Sunday, burglars again smashed through the side of his building in a shopping plaza at Eiland Boulevard and State Road 54.

This time, though, the alarm didn't go off. This time, the bandits made off with an arsenal: 30 handguns, two rifles and a sniper rifle, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said.

"It gives all of us great concern that these guns are on the street, and we are going to work diligently to recover them and arrest those individuals involved," Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said in a statement Monday.

Local and federal investigators haven't linked Sunday's robbery to the one that took place in March, but the gun shop owner was confident that it was the same thieves.

"They targeted some of the same firearms that they failed to get away with the first time," Webb, 44, said outside his shop Monday. "The M.O. (modus operandi, or method) was the same."

Authorities didn't reveal all of the weapons that were taken or how much they're worth.

The Wesley Chapel break-in is reminiscent of a Tampa gun shop that was robbed in similar fashion about six months ago. In that incident, the robbers were caught on video breaching the wall and stealing 42 handguns worth $20,700 in just a minute, authorities said.

Webb described how his shop at 32733 Eiland Blvd. was robbed: After the nearby Wendy's turned off its lights at 2 a.m., the burglars tried to break through the 8-inch-thick concrete wall in the same spot that was breached in March. But they couldn't get through, Webb said, because he had that section reinforced when it was repaired.

"So they moved over to a more vulnerable spot on the wall and repeated the process," he said.

After nearly an hour of hammering, the burglars created a hole big enough to crawl through shortly before 3 a.m. Store surveillance video shows three people in white hoodies, or painters outfits, crawling on the floor behind the counter, taking guns from the cabinets. None of the shop's heat or motion detectors were set off, Webb said, even when the burglars stood to get the rifles off the wall.

It couldn't have been an inside job, Webb said, because he doesn't have any employees. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives spokesman Kevin Richardson said one or more of the burglars likely entered the store beforehand posing as customers to check out the inventory and security systems.

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Webb agreed: "It's fairly clear to me, at least, that they cased the place. And they had located where some of the sensors were so they could attempt to avoid it."

"That ain't gonna happen again."

He has already installed more sensors and he plans to fix the hole in the wall — secured with plywood Monday — with concrete and a steel plate.

Where the guns end up, Richardson said, is anyone's guess. Whoever stole them could have sold them already or could hold onto them for a while. They could be sold locally or transported over state lines to places like New York or Chicago, where laws make it harder to obtain guns legally. Or they could even be shipped out internationally.

There may also be a good reason why they stole a $700 AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, but left a $2,000 Israeli-made rifle next to it, Richardson said. Some criminal enterprises, like gangs and cartels, prefer certain types of guns over others and are willing to pay a premium for what they want.

Wherever they end up, Richardson said, they present an immediate threat to citizens and law enforcement.

"Just think: These guns could end up in the hands of teenagers," he said. "Many times, they end up in the hands of felons with violent histories who aren't supposed to have firearms in the first place."

Webb doesn't know how long it will take for his insurance company to replenish his inventory. "This is what we do to make a living," he said. "This really hurts my business and it hurts my family."

The strategy of busting through walls is becoming a popular method of burglarizing businesses, said Hillsborough sheriff's Lt. Chris Baumann, because of ever-more complicated alarm systems guarding the doors and windows.

He has seen cell phone stores get broken into that way, and that's what happened to Shooting Sports, the Tampa gun shop on N Dale Mabry Highway robbed this past October. Hillsborough deputies arrested four brothers in connection with that burglary. So far, Baumann said, deputies have recovered only six or seven of the stolen weapons.

Authorities don't know whether the burglars in the Wesley Chapel robbery have any connection to those who robbed the Tampa gun shop or whether they were just inspired by that heist.

"The M.O.s are very similar," Baumann said, "but that got so much media attention and everyone was talking about it, that it's hard to say if they're related or they're copycats.

"But the M.O.s are similar enough that they could be related."

Times staff writer Tony Marrero contributed to this report. Contact Josh Solomon at (813) 909-4613 or jsolomon@tampabay.com. Follow @josh_solomon15.