A thief tunneled into the side of a family-owned gun store in Newcastle early Monday morning and stole at least $40,000 worth of firearms.
At about 1:20 a.m., a person was caught on surveillance camera removing the siding off Foothill Firearms, 213 Taylor Road, creating a hole to enter, said Elise Soviar, a spokeswoman for the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.
The thief took as many as 50 firearms from the store and left.
Jaimie Kuntz, co-owner of Foothill Firearms, said she received a call at 4 a.m. from the store’s security company letting her know that the shop’s alarm was going off, and another call from a neighboring business owner who let Kuntz know her store was being robbed.
“(The neighboring business owner) said she’d seen them fleeing the scene and heard the rattling of something in their bags,” she said.
Less than 20 minutes after receiving the call, Kuntz said she and her family arrived at the store to begin taking inventory and patch the hole in the wall. The family reported the theft to the Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Justice and the ATF.
Surveillance footage showed the thief unsuccessfully attempting to conceal their crime, according to Kuntz.
“They tried to spray paint the camera to block it, but they spray painted the one and only one that doesn’t work … so we have them all the way through,” she said.
The value of the firearms taken was estimated to be at least $40,000 — between $900 and $1,800 a piece — according to Kuntz, but the business is still determining the number of firearms taken and the total cost in damages.
“This is really messed up for a small, family-owned business,” Kuntz said.
The Sheriff’s Office said an investigation into the theft was underway, adding it was working to complete a suspect description using the video.
Source Agencies
