The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Reward offered in gun store burglaries
After the burglary of The Gun Works of Central New York in Verona and the AX Tactical in Yorkville, authorities are offering a combined reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.
On July 26, between 4:30-5:30 a.m., an unknown person or persons burglarized AX Tactical, located at 4947 Commercial Drive in Yorkville, and stole three long guns.
On July 27, between the same hours, an unknown person or persons burglarized the Gun Works of Central New York, located at 5378 State Route 31 in Verona, and stole 14 handguns.
“The second the window was penetrated, alarms were sounded and police were dispatched,” GunWorks owner Rich Champion said. “It was an immediate response from police and they were on top of things, but the whoever broke in knew what they were doing.”
Public Information Officer and New York State Trooper Jack Keller said the New York State Police are working with the ATF along with the Whitestown Police Department.
When asked about his thoughts on whether the burglaries are related, Keller said he wanted to leave it to the ATF investigators.
“It’s hard to say because we don’t have video from our incident in Verona,” Keller said. “There’s a pos- sibility that they are linked, but we can’t make any assumptions.”
The ATF are normally called in to assist law enforcement agencies when gun stores are burglarized. The ATF and National Shooting Sports Foundation are offering $5,000 each for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible at each location.
Anyone with information about either burglary or the stolen firearms should contact ATF at 1-888-ATFGUNS (888-283-4867), the New York State Police at (315) 366-6000 or email ATFTips@atf.gov, or contact ATF through its website at www.atf.gov/contact/atftips. Tips may also be submitted to ATF through the Reportit app, available on both Google Play and the Apple App Store, or by visiting www.reportit.com . All tips will be kept confidential.