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While I was at Tulsa they caught a guy stealing guns off tables. He had been setting up as a dealer at the show for quite a while. Another table holder saw him pick up a small pistol off a table while the dealers was talking to someone else and then walk over to his table and put it in a brief case. The police found several stolen guns in the brief case. I just wonder how many years he had doing it.
Guys that do shows need to keep a eye on their tables or string yours guns together, at least your handguns. Walking around the show I always see unattended tables, guns just laying out. I can’t believe a table holder would do that but they do.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
I’m glad to hear this there’s been to many guns disappearing from the gun shows. Your right everyone needs to watch their tables closer. All of us deserve to know the guy’s name. Joe Wannemacher talked to us in Baltimore about guns being stolen at shows .He wanted to catch the. SOB and apparently he did. LeRoy Merz
They caught several guys Friday and Saturday. My table neighbor was the one who got the pistol stolen, and returned. The thief had an accomplice that was also arrested when they found several of the guns on his table were stolen from other shows as well. Since my neighbor was in the loop, he later found that these guys had a stolen pistol among their possession that was traced back to a San Antonio show. Also on Friday, a third person was caught trying to walk a gun out the doors. They have installed security cameras in the building and were able to use their system to identify and track these individuals as they walked through the building. On Saturday, one guy (another with dealer tags) was caught walking off and out the door with a $15k Parker.
The Tulsa event has got their act together, and more of these jerks got what they deserved. The two that stole from my neighbor wouldnt have gotten caught had it not been for a guy 3-4 tables down that saw it happen. Your right, we have to help each other out.
Another thing, and Im sure many of you do the same, is to always check you firearms after someone has handled them. I can remember when I was a kid and my dad was putting on gun shows (before cable ties were in vogue) he ingrained in me the need to check every gun to make sure someone didnt slip in a live round. Back in the 70’s the anti-gun nuts were as bad as they are today–He had several dealers at a show come to him to mention that someone was putting live rounds in the guns after handling. Round goes off and its bad for everyone. Dealers also have to pay attention to what they take in as well. Loaded guns do make it through the doors, and for one of my neighbors years ago in San Antonio, he was about to dry fire a 22cal pistol, that he owned, at a show, only to find that it was loaded. (Didnt mean to get on the soap box on this item but youve got to be vigilant).
BTW, you can search Tulsa mugshots for a given day and it will show the photo and arrest report for each person that made it to lockup, from what I understand. The two guys I mentioned earlier who were arrested were TX Gun Collectors Assoc members from what I understand (even had TGCA table cloth covers. Been going to these shows for years.
Chris Hartman
1892takedown @sbcglobal.net ......NRA Endowment Life Member.....WACA Member
"God is great.....beer is good.....and people are crazy"... Billy Currington
I wonder if these are the guys that stole the Henry rifle from the Groves at a previous Tulsa show. I hope they search their homes for any other stolen guns. They should be classified as felons now and have all of their guns conficated for life.
I’m sure they are going to search all their property including computers looking for a trail of how they sold the stolen guns. At our table we were talking about that they should have cameras at the show but didn’t know they already did.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
I would assume they will be doing jail time.
Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
I would hope so Bob but we still see some famous (or rather infamous) faces at the major shows that have been guest of the gov’t.
Casey
Link to an article naming the men and giving examples of what they stole…
Greg
Greg,
Thank you very much for the link… it is always a good thing to put faces to the names of the low-down thiefs!
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
January 26, 2011
Offline
Yes, thanks for the link. Its hard to believe these were long time dealers, but I always thought the guns disappearing at shows had to be going under other tables. it would almost be too easy, especially at the busy shows where people are carrying around guns table to table making trades.
I’ve never been to the Tulsa Show, do any of you recognize theses guys? And were they working together in some way, or three separate cases of theft?
~Gary~
Yes, thanks for the link. I have seen the guy captioned on the far left and far right before. The one on the left was the one charged with concealing stolen property, I think his accomplice may be the guy on the far right. Not sure if the third guy was acting on his own or part of this little theft ring. The article clears up how many they caught, I had heard it was three on Friday, and when they announced a third had been caught on Saturday, led me to believe they had caught 6 total.
Some have thought that at past shows these vendor/thiefs were camping out under their table till the hall was cleared, doing their dirty work during the night, then absconding back under their tables till morning when everyone is let into the doors, and then later carting the guns out the door. Who knows, just glad these dregs that havent been caught yet will have to think long and hard about doing it again. How knows, these guys may have been stealing at the show only to turn around to sell to another vendor at the same show, using the money to purchase legitimate guns, or they were packing them to other out-of-state shows and reselling.
1892takedown @sbcglobal.net ......NRA Endowment Life Member.....WACA Member
"God is great.....beer is good.....and people are crazy"... Billy Currington
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