By admin 
BEECH GROVE, Ind. (WISH) – Thieves tried to steal thousands of dollars worth of guns Beech Grove Firearmsbut their efforts were thwarted.
In an interview with News 8, owner Greg Burge showed surveillance video of two would-be robbers outside his gun shop around 6 a.m. Friday morning. One man threw a planter at the double glass doors. When the glass did not break, he threw a large stone.
This caused one of the glass doors at the front to break, sending pieces onto the concrete ground. The robbers could not enter because there was a metal door between the now broken door and the guns.
“Even though they did their best, they didn’t come into the store,” Burge said. “Nothing was stolen. Our security features have done their job. Now, as you can see, we just have a mess to clean up this morning.”
The two men went around the building and tried to kick in a back door. They were joined by their getaway driver, but the steps were not strong enough to break through the steel door.
Burge said this was the fifth or sixth robbery or attempted robbery at the store in the past three years.
The store opened sixteen years ago and crimes have escalated in recent years. Burge has since implemented 27 cameras and concrete barriers to prevent thieves from driving cars or trucks into his store. That’s happened once before. Thieves stole nearly $30,000 worth of firearms.
“If the burglar manages to get into this gun shop, the damage that can be done is enormous as these weapons are spread like pins across the United States,” Burge said.
Burge knows firsthand the damage caused by illegal weapons as a former retired police officer. So he’s calling for stricter legislation and harsher penalties for gun theft as a way to prevent these types of crimes.
“It’s not just our gun store that’s dealing with this epidemic,” Burge said.
Burge and his wife have implemented as many safety measures as possible. Their shop is just a stone’s throw from the police station.
“I don’t know what else we can do,” Burge said.
The broken door cost them a few hundred dollars.