So today my store was robbed...

First of all, the name of the place is Arrowhead Trading Post and it is in Burbank, Illinois, and if anyone has or finds any info pertaining to this I'd be grateful if you post here or PM me.
It is a southern suburb of Chicago, so anything in the Chicagoland area has potential.

What happened was, today (Monday October 12th) at approximately 4:30pm a small group of about 5-6 African American individuals in late-teens to early 20s entered interested in paintball gear.

One of them asked to see one of our Invert Minis, and talking to him about it he wanted to try to shoot it. We put an airtank on it and dry fired it, then handed it over to let him try it. Asking what else it needed to play, we put a hopper in the feedneck.

At around this time, I was up on a step-stool putting a gun back on the wall, when I hear a commotion and look over to see several people and an employee of ours running out the door.

I jumped down to run out, but the store owner beat me out. Being the only employee left I blocked the entrance and phoned the police.
A chase ensued, and a customer who was just pulling in spun their car around to follow the thieves.

After the commotion settled down, the customer who chased them came back and handed us the Mini explaining that it was thrown at their vehicle and landed in a yard.
Amazingly, the Mini, and Crossfire tank were not even scratched! The hopper was just a gravity feed, and only suffered some scrapes. Unfortunately, since the gun was handled so much it could not be used for prints.
However, we did get a liscense plate and filed a police report.

But here is where you guys come in. What the thieves DID get away with, was a Tippmann X-7 with a full M-16/M-4 kit on it that was on display atop a counter.

It has a DEMO badge on the side of it, and is a serial number 0050609.
It had a Tippmann 14" Pathfinder barrel, and the carry handle was cracked on the back from it being dropped. It also had a cheap, spring-hinge bi-pod on it, but that is the least of our concerns.

If anyone sees this for sale or in a store, don't hesitate to link me to the ad or tell me the whereabouts.

They probably won't get far, the group of people most commonly play in the streets and stuff gets confiscated all the time. They also have the plate number and vehicle description so if they are local we can find them. And I don't think they would be smart enough to part it out, so it should be an easy target if it goes up for sale.


Again, thanks for any help in advance. I hope these guys can be brought to justice...

I dont think im all that far away so I will keep an eye out at my local shops.

Put a link up on my teams forums. Team Rarebreed, based in the Chicago area. They will keep their eyes and ears open as well.

Even if it were a factory-new piece of polished steel and each thief left a set of perfect fives on it, all plainly visible to the naked eye - they still wouldn't fingerprint it.

Shoplifting isn't enough of a crime for police to even bother with wasting the resources on fingerprinting. It's not cheap to do it and it's unlikely the case would even go to trial anyhow. The officer was just being nice when he said it had been handled too much (even though it was true).

The kids will get caught when they do something stupid with the paintball gun. It'll be siezed into evidence and your store will probably never get it back. Insurance will cover the loss. Of all the stories I've heard of retail shoplifting, I can't think of a single example where the kids didn't get busted inside of a week because they did something dumb to get caught.

And when they do get caught, the conspiracy charge is more serious than the shoplifting. They'll plea the whole thing down to 30 days of probation and community service if it's a juvenile first offense.


But in the meantime, I hope they don't hurt somebody with the marker. If they're stupid enough to shoplift it, they're probably stupid enough to shoot at people with it.

I doubt it'll show up on eBay but I'll check anyhow.

Most likely you won't see the gun again, and as nice as it is for the others to keep an eye out for it, they won't find it either unless they hang out in the same mostly likely urban gettos as these punks. At best it might turn up in a pawn shop. Most likely it will get used it robberies.

Much appreciated.



Yeah, even if it never turns up, I'll still feel better knowing I have a group of people on the lookout. Neighborhood watch is never a bad thing.

Never thought to go down to the local field and inform them, I'll be doing that as soon as I have time.

"several people and an employee of ours running out the door."

Chasing or part of the thieves?

May have to instigate the pawn shop electric lock now on all PB shops doors......

Chasing. I know the guy, he'd never do such a thing.


Updating.

The X-7 serial number is 0050609