Massachusetts Army Reserve Armory looted

| November 16, 2015

Bobo sends us a link to the news that an Army Reserve Armory in Worcester, Massachusetts was looted the other day. Missing are six M4 scary black guns, some handguns, and some other rifles. Apparently the alarm had been disabled during some construction on the facility.

The missing weapons are now in a national database, FBI spokeswoman Kristen Setera said in a statement to The Daily Beast. The FBI is working in coordination with Worcester and state police, she added.

“Nothing at this point in time would tie this to any specific threat or anything else at this point,” Hank Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, said at a press conference on Sunday.

Well, now that the weapons are in a national database, they’ll probably turn themselves in to the authorities.

I’m not sure how, but I know that the NRA will be blamed for this.

Category: Army News

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ChipNASA
Hondo

Sorry, Chip. Wrong Armory, wrong state. Hell – wrong century! (smile)

B Woodman

Still funny to those who learned history.

Instinct

Who knew that John Brown was a member of the NRA!

Combat Historian

The PG County cop who lost his assault rifle while changing tires should be kicked upstairs into the ATF and made the head agent-in-charge of this investigation…

MSGRetired

This is very local to me, I drive by that area a few times a week. Not real happy knowing the scary guns are out there in my area especially in my career field. I know there is a Medical Unit in that Armory and there use to be an MP unit, not sure if the MP unit is still there. Would love to know what other rifles were taken, if they are older M16’s then it would most likely be the Medical Units arms room.

JacktheJarhead

Wasn’t that where the HQ 25th Marines used to be?

Ex-344MP

The 344th MP detachment is still there. There is only 1 safe in the building, but you have to jump through hoops to get into it. It’s not jewelry at a combo. Whoever did this, knew how to get inside the safe without blowing a hole in it. The weapons stored were M4’s, 9mm pistols, and mossberg shotguns.

jonp

who said they were in the safe or that the safe was locked? The story says they broke into the armory not the armory safe unless I didn’t read the story correctly

Ex-344MP

Because there isn’t one? The weapons are kept in a safe. There is no Armoury.

2/17 Air Cav

By being in the database, after they are used in a crime, the feds will be able to say, “Lookie! We got a hit! This is one that was stolen from the armory!” And they can pat themselves on the back and whisper, “Now if only we can find all of those Fast and Furious weapons.”

Tony180a

Hmmm arms room alarm disabled and no guard posted?

L. Taylor

This was likely contracted and the command might not have even been informed the alarm was disabled.

3E9

Doubtful. Anytime an armory alarm is disabled the NCOIC or CO is notified. At least that was how we did it in the ARNG and the USAFR.

MSG Eric

Correct. Even if the arms room is locked and secured and weapons are behind at least two locks (though usually three), you still need manned security for the vault until the alarm system is back on.

That happens in any facility if the power goes out.

So, I’m guessing that if it was a medical unit (as mentioned above) they were probably not attending to that requirement because of any number of excuses. (All that Army stuff “we” medical types shouldn’t worry about because “we’re” medical)

Red Leg JO

And people wondered why i was an $%^hole as a physical security officer about arms rooms.

L. Taylor

Someone is getting relieved. Or a GOMAR.

Bummer. They might not have even been informed that the alarm was shut down.

Tony180a

I agree somebody is getting fired.

SDM8492

I know of this armory pretty well. There is a Combat Hospital Unit there, an MP Detachment, and a CID Detachment.

Bobo

CID detachment? Well, that could be interesting.

I’m wondering how many people would have know that the alarm system was down and might have taken advantage of the fact.

UpNorth

It would be interesting to track who might not have shown up for work on the construction crew this a.m.

A Proud Infidel®™

A CID Detachment? Let’s see if they can figure something out!

sapper3307

CID doesn’t even have a good t.v show.

L. Taylor

Neither does NCIS.

Weekend Warrior in Texas

NCIS used to be NIS, but I think they got tired of people saying it stood for “No Investigating Skills”.

Anccpt

Do you mean a ‘Combat Support Hospital’? Because those units are huge; battalion sized elements; and there’s a ton of other sensitive crap in those cages. Even if it’s a downtrace of a CSH; that’s a lot of gear.

Don H

I agree. There would have been at least a hundred, perhaps up to 400, depending on if it was the complete CSH or just one of the companies. But, as said above, they would likely have been M-16s rather than M-4s. Even the active duty CSH I went to Iraq with was armed with M-16s. So the fact that only 6 were taken makes me think it wwas one of the samller units, perhaps the CID detachment? But what did they mean by “plus some other rifles?” It will be interesting to see how this plays out–was it an armorer, with keys to his unit’s weapons racks? Did tehy just pick up a rack and take the whole thing? Did they cut the locks, which would have taken some work? Lots of questions here . . .

Lincolntf

I’m from Worcester, used to drive past the Reserve Center all the time. Can’t decide who is the most likely culprit. Inside job? Gang bangers? Semi-organized crime? The Islamic Center right down the street (they’ve got a history)? Whoever it was, I hope the Army/FBI/Cops find the weapons soon.

Tony180a

I’m going with inside job.

Skippy

same here on inside job or construction worker

Bernie Hackett

I’m taking inside job for $500.

3E9

Ditto

Tony180a

Hard to imagine any armory without surveillance especially with recent attacks on recruiters, naval reserve center etc.

Skippy

I’m leaning that way for 501 dollars 🙂 and that’s my last offer Lol…

Ncat

Someone had to conveniently know the surveillance was out, yes?

Ncat

Should have said alarm, not surveillance.

MSG Eric

90% definite inside job. At the least, someone who was in one of those units, ETS’d and still knows some of the procedures.

But, more likely, someone in one of those units. If you have three detachments of units there and only one unit’s set of weapons (from the count in the article), someone from one of those units grabbed them up for other purposes later.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if one or two weapons were “lost” at some point recently and insiders did this to cover up those losses.

So many possibilities for insider motivation.

3E9

I see a Massachusetts redneck saying “Greetings all of you;observe this feces” as he unveils his latest addition to the arms room.

BOILING MAD CPO

Stationed at an Armed Forces Reserve Center in Lawrence, Ma back in the 80’s. We had USMCR. USNR and USAR in separate areas. The Navy’s security was excellent, the USMCR was adequate and the Army’s total lacking and they had the tanks and weapons to protect. Shamful

A Proud Infidel®™

Has the Department of [In]Justice released a statement trying to blame it on the NRA yet? I remember when a unit’s Arms Room was burgled on Ft. Benning when I was there and the perps got caught about six months later.

Lincolntf

Rumor I just heard from Worcester is that the thieves broke in through the roof, starting a fire in the process, the smoke from which alerted the authorities.

sapper3307

Sounds like that armory’s full timers saw a opportunity and took it.

ChipNASA

ANNNNNND they have photos of the thief and vehicle.

I think this should be closed rather shortly

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/11/16/worcester-stolen-guns-army-reserve-center-fbi/

MSG Eric

Yep, even more likely a unit member now.

Fjardeson

Nice 1970’s vintage camera there. I guess all the good security systems are watching NoBama’s dogs.

A Proud Infidel®™

I give it six months max until they catch the the guilty party(ies).

streetsweeper

Pretty shitty photo…NCIS will be able to solve it in an episode featuring the famous “Gibbs Slap”…

jonp

I don’t know about fired. A state cop left his full auto AR on the back seat of his cruiser and it was stolen. I don’t think anything happened to him.

Instinct

Since no one has said it yet, I’ll throw it out there:

SEE!!!! This is why we need more gun control laws to prevent things like this from happening!!!1!!!

/sarc off

H1

10 M11 Pistols.
Not your standard MTOE.
And 5 hours to load up.
Ballsy.

68Whiskey

Would be standard for CID, I’d think.

H1

“Investigators were able to pull location information from Morales’ electronic monitoring device which showed him at the Armory for hours on the night the weapons were stolen.”

And more.