Thieves target gun stores two miles apart in Wake County

Gun shops just two miles apart in Wake County have been the targets of would-be thieves. In both cases, the crimes were caught on camera.

Posted 7:15 p.m. Jun 4, 2020 — Updated 7:15 p.m. Jun 4, 2020

Adam Owens

, WRAL anchor/reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gun shops just two miles apart in Wake County have been the targets of would-be thieves. In both cases, the crimes were caught on camera.

At Personal Defense and Handgun Safety Center on Tryon Road, owner Mike Tilley's surveillance video captured Wednesday night shows three people dressed in black use a ladder, scaffolding, bricks and metal poles to break in.

They shattered glass and squeezed through a window to get inside,

"Then they saw they could not get into the main portion of the building,” Tilley said.

They did not get to the guns. Those are safely stored behind fortifications including metal bars.

"We do everything we possibly can to make sure no one is getting any firearms," Tilley said.

On Sunday, not far away on Fayetteville Road, someone smashed glass and fired on the lock at Smokin’ Barrel Guns & Ammo. The door held, the shop owner said, but the building was damaged.

Surveillance video shared by the business owner very clearly captured two people trying and failing to gain access to the building.

Despite their proximity, it's not clear if the two cases are connected. Raleigh police are investigating at Personal Defense and Handgun Safety Center, while the Wake County Sheriff's Office is the lead agency on the attempted break-in at Smokin Barrel Guns & Ammo.

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