Thieves make a bang driving stolen truck into Vernon gun shop

VERNON – Thieves rammed the door of a local gun shop open with a stolen vehicle and lifted five assault style firearms from the business Sunday evening.

RCMP were alerted to the break-in around 8 p.m. by the shop’s alarm system. They arrived to find a gaping hole in the front of the Del Selin Gunsmith gun shop on 28th Street. A Toyota pick-up truck the crooks had stolen from a nearby business and used as a battering ram had been abandoned at the scene.

Missing were five Czeck SKS semi-automatic assault style weapons, similar in appearance to an AK 47. It is unknown if ammunition was also taken.

“These are weapons that frighten people,” Cpl. Gerry Kovaks says.

Police are working hard to track down the stolen guns.

“(There’s) always a concern when weapons are being stolen and put into use by people not for the purposes of what they were intended,” Kovaks says.

The suspects fled the scene in a silver coloured Chevrolet Optra with B.C. license plate 611 LWN. The vehicle is unique because the driver’s door is white and the driver’s front fender is brown. The RCMP is asking the public’s assistance in locating this vehicle. Please notify your local RCMP or call 911 if you see this vehicle.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Charlotte Helston at chelston@infotelnews.ca, call (250)309-5230 or tweet @charhelston.