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fire arms and thieves

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anthony7777

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in my business i sometimes find a need to hire part time help recently id done such employing an additional carpenter on the recommendation of one of my full time employees, turns out he is living with this new guys niece, about 6-7 months goes by and this new guy is a great worker on time, knows what hes doing, very clean etc. but a bit of a wise guy and is fully documented, i had two full time workers and the new guy replace several 2x8"s replace drywall, compound and paint two bedroom and one bath ceiling for a customer who is a friend that just so happens to own and operate my near by liquor store, the job came out great, one late evening after the job was done i get a call from my the full time guy who's living with the new guys niece at 11:47 he tells me he has to talk with me about something very important cant wait till morning so i let him come over, he says that the new guy was shaken up about having done something wrong the new guy confessed to him that he took a set of keys from the house they just completed the work on that were hanging in the kitchen and had copies made, a couple of days latter the new guy and two of his friends entered the house and stole some firearms, two shot guns, two long rifles, and two pistols one 357 mag the other a nine mill. before he finished telling me all this i had a detective on the phone and sent the employee to meet with him, turns out the new guy after giving his friends the pistols destroyed the shot guns and rifles and trust them into the waters of long island sound and got out of town, with the information that my full time employee gave the police they caught one of the friends in Texas seems they had a swat team laying up for him at a relatives home most likely heading for the Mexico border, from what i know the new guy and one other are still at large, wait it gets better, two weeks ago i get a registered letter from "state police special fire arms unit" saying my pistol permit has been revoked and i must go up to middletown ct. about an hour and a half ride one way and personally turn it in if not id be arrested, i thought well here it goes i try to help and they will take it out on the people they can get there hands on no matter how remotely one may be associated with the incident so i go up to see what i can do seems that an investigation was done on me as well and they found an accounting error on their part that my $35.00 renewal fee hadnt cleared their system just had to give them a money order for said amount and they reinstated my permit on the spot what a relief, to say Ive been shaken up by all this can not explain the amount of sleep Ive lost or all the second guessing on my part about hiring people even when they come highly recommended its not over yet im waiting to hear if and when they catch the other two s.o.b's when they do at least the preliminary case will be held here in Stamford you can bet ill be attending just so they can see the look of complete disgust i have for them, the owner of the house has insurance for these stolen items but can not collect because no sign of forced entry is evident no broken windows, smashed doors etc. thanks to all especially "THE BOSS" Basil for having a place i can tell this story, Ive been keeping this inside for four weeks now Ive not even told my wife yet, i feel a bit better now.
 
Why on earth wasn't this stuff in a gun safe?
Or did he just leave it with the key in the lock?
 
Alana, the guns were in a safe in a finished basement unfortunately the set of "spare" keys hanging in the kitchen contained all the keys for everything with a lock on it including extra keys for both his cars, amazing isnt it?, you can not imagine how imbarresed and upset i am over this, Ive been living with the thought of possible forms of retribution that may be forthcoming for myself my family and the employee for having turned them in. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wall.gif
 
basil, no it wasnt a very high end type safe at all just has a round type key with nubs the kind they used in older house/car alarms, honestly with a medium size screw driver one could easily pry the door open on it. see what happens in cases like this it distracts ones mind from thinking about important things to second guessing, blame, fear, etc. just bad all around. but as you say "good men can not just do nothing"
 
al least there was a safe , even if the owners were pretty stupid to just leave the keys laying around ....

too many guns are stolen and end up in the hands of the "bad guys"
 
beaulieu, the owner lives in a very, very low crime area that doesnt excuse him from being perhaps complacent regarding this issue i really dont think hes "stupid", look if these guys wanted those guns i dont think it really mattered how good/expensive the safe was they figure out a way to get them no matter what it took, and gun stealing is just one of many ways the bad guys can get guns, its these people that force good people such as you and i to have to modify their life styles to accommodate having such s.o.b's living in our otherwise law bidding society, i respect all opinions on this issue but it boils down to the fact that these people are the ones that make victims the culprit, we can easily say the victim should have done this, he could have had that in place, maybe he should not have legal fire arms at all etc. etc. unless he "gave" these guns to the thieves i dont really want to blame him. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/savewave.gif
 
Agreed. The owner was the victim here, no matter how lax his security measures may have been. Let's face it, unless the bad guy had actually been able to get inside the home he would not have know that there were guns there in the first place.

He made the conscious decision to duplicate the keys, enter the home with the intent of taking the guns, and actually carrying out the theft.

In the UK, burglary is defined as entering a building with the intent of stealing something therein, whether the entry to that building is forced or not. I would have thought that a similar definition would have applied over here for purposes of an insurance claim.
 
Too bad it happened, but, if it was my house and property I would be going after the contractor to make it right. I am sure it is not what you want to hear Anthony but these guys were representing you and your business. Hope it works out as well as possible for you.
 
tomshobby, very, very good point, i agree, upon learning of this event the first conversation i had with the owner was to have him add up the value of the stolen items and that id make full restitution, the employees pay for that week was just over $1500.00 that was already given to the victim i tried to give him more money of my own but he flat out refused i do that, however believe it or not he just gave me additional work to do in the house the price will be appropriately adjusted giving me a way to restore his losses.
 
Actually my point in asking, was more that he might find problems when he comes to renew his pistol permit.

I realise he was the victim, but the powers that be might not have quite the same view on matters. Sadly...
 
anthony7777 said:
tomshobby, very, very good point, i agree, upon learning of this event the first conversation i had with the owner was to have him add up the value of the stolen items and that id make full restitution, the employees pay for that week was just over $1500.00 that was already given to the victim i tried to give him more money of my own but he flat out refused i do that, however believe it or not he just gave me additional work to do in the house the price will be appropriately adjusted giving me a way to restore his losses.
Click to expand...

And by doing so, you have made a customer for life and someone who will likely recommend you to friends. Doing the right thing very often has long term good benefits. Case in point: when I first retired from the AF, I spent a very brief period as a car salesman at a local Nissan dealer. One day this young couple came in to by a used car to replace one that had been totaled. I sold them a used Saturn. While they were down in the finance office inking the deal, I discovered (while going out to get the VIN) that the driver's side door would not open from the inside. I told my slime-dog of a boss about it and he said "don't worry about it - it's their problem now." Of course this did not set right with me. When the couple came up from the finance office, I told them about the problem and that my management would not do anything about it. Then I told them to take the car to the Saturn dealer, have it fixed, and bring me the bill and I'd pay for it. It cost me about $50 out of pocket to have it fixed, but then I got several new customers from their friends and relatives.

Basil
 
Anthony- very sorry to hear of your troubles.

Most of us who have owned small business concerns
will agree- the worst part of it is having employees.

Really grim but it feels good to stand up to the plate,
doesn't it? You shave in the morning and see an honest
man in the mirror, looking you square in the eye.

best regards, /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/savewave.gif

dale
 
rlwhitetr3b, that's for sure, now that i think of that it would have been perceived by law enforcement as a complete conspiracy, id have been totally blind sided still sitting at police headquarters babbling, what dah? /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cryin.gif
 
I know that fear of what problems employees could cause was one of the reasons I retired and sold my business back to the company I was working for. Finding quality employees I could trust was always a first priority, and as the business grew, it got more difficult each year. Finally I had enough of the apprehension and I bailed. I think my blood pressure started to drop on the drive home from the office that last day.
 
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