A firearms dealer in Valley View has been burglarized for the second time in two weeks.
A smash and grab-style burglary on Tuesday around 3:15 a.m. also marked the third time in ten months the Cleveland Armory had been burglarized.
Surveillance video showed two men rushing into the store through a shattered window. Video showed the men searching the store for more than two minutes, before making off with just a crossbow.
Guns they were likely after had been locked up.
On July 13, two men drove a Dodge Durango into the building before ransacking the store and flipping a display case. The men stole six handguns. The damage was so extensive, a gas line was ruptured.
Last September, burglars made off with eleven handguns from the same store.
“These are people who’ve decided the world’s given up on them and they don’t care about anybody,” store owner Todd Karam said.
The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating. ATF spokeswoman Suzanne Dabkowski said the agency conducts a full inventory of any federally-licensed dealer that’s been burglarized. Serial numbers of stolen weapons are entered into a database, so they can be traced if used in a crime.
“They are going somewhere out into the streets largely to people who cannot possess the firearms legally,” Dabkowski said.
Karam said he’s now making expensive security upgrades in order to make sure he can remain in business.
“Everyone has their dream of having their own business,” he said, “And this is definitely setting me back to the point that it could put me out of business if it happens again."
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