Thieves steal rifles from Turlock VFW post
Thieves rammed the locked gate and pried open a metal door to break into Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5059 early Tuesday.
Surveillance footage shows that once inside the post’s canteen, the two men tried to use a cable attached to their pickup truck to pull out a bolted-down ATM, according to an account on the post’s Facebook page. “They were unable to remove it and left, only to return minutes later. They returned with more tools, where they continued to damage the ATM.”
The incident began when the truck rammed the gate at 3:06 a.m., said Manuel Sandoval, financial officer for Post 5059, which is at 1405 E. Linwood Ave. Moving quickly, they broke into the building at 3:09, he said. “From watching the video, theycame in with a real specific target, which was the ATM machine,” Sandoval said.
Failing to steal or break into that, the men took two World War II bolt-action rifles. The guns’ bolts had been removed, so neither is operable. Sandoval knew only that one of the rifles was Japanese. The thieves also took some bottles of alcohol, he said.
The post will file a claim regarding the ATM damage, Sandoval said, and he didn’t know yet what 5059’s financial responsibility for that will be.
“The door is going to be pretty expensive,” he said. “We’re probably talking close to $2,000,” not including installation.
No information was immediately available from police, but the VWF post described the suspects as two white males in an extended-cab pickup truck.
Anyone with information regarding the theft is asked to call the Turlock Police Department at 209-668-5550. Tipsters can also leave information anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers at 209-521-4636 and may be eligible for a reward.
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This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 11:04 AM with the headline "Thieves steal rifles from Turlock VFW post."