An overnight burglary at a Bucks County gun shop ends in crash. Here's what police recovered
Three juveniles are in police custody and two more individuals are wanted in an overnight burglary at a Middletown custom gun store that resulted in a police pursuit ending in Trenton.
Middletown police responded about 3 a.m. Tuesday to a burglar alarm at LugerMan Inc. in the 1800 block of East Old Lincoln Highway. The business sells firearms and ammunition, but is known for manufacturing custom replicas of World War II-era German Lugers and historical restoration work.
As patrol cars pulled into the parking lot, officers saw a vehicle pulling out and attempted to stop the car, which was reported stolen out of Philadelphia on May 23, Middletown Lt. Steve Forman said.
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A pursuit started toward Falls Township, where police put spiked stop sticks on the roadway ahead of the vehicle. The vehicle crossed the Calhoun Street Bridge into Trenton, where it lost control and struck a pole and concrete abutment, Forman said. Five individuals bailed out of the car.
When police searched the car they found more than 20 handguns and rifles, Forman said. Authorities believe they have recovered all the stolen firearms, but a full inventory is being done Tuesday.
The suspects appear to have entered the store after climbing on the stolen car to get to the second-floor roof and forcing open a window in the manufacturing part of the building. After entering the building, which is connected to the showroom, they forced entry through a reinforced steel door, police said.
Early Tuesday, Trenton City police apprehended three juvenile suspects about an hour after the vehicle was found. They are in custody in New Jersey on Bucks County's warrants and the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and Mercer County Prosecutors are working out an extradition arrangement.
Police are using surveillance video from LugerMan in an attempt to identify the two suspects who remain at large, Forman said.
Forman did not know if the suspects would be charged as juveniles or adults in Pennsylvania. Mercer County prosecutors will also be filing firearms charges there, he added.
Other gun shops robbed in Bucks County, Montco
Authorities are also looking into whether this burglary has any connection to a string of other gun shop burglaries in the southeastern Pennsylvania region over the last year.
In those cases, suspects included juveniles and they used cars stolen out of Philadelphia. But in those earlier cases the suspects targeted high-volume stores, while LugerMan is considered a smaller, custom gun manufacturer, Forman said.
Earlier this year, four adults and 10 juveniles were accused of stealing 93 firearms from gun stores in Bucks and Montgomery counties, some of which were used in subsequent crimes including at least two murders, authorities said.
Only 33 of the stolen guns have been recovered by law enforcement and three of the recovered guns were allegedly used in crimes including the murder of a Philadelphia teen in October and an armed robbery in Pennsauken, New Jersey. The Montgomery County District Attorney is prosecuting the case. All adult defendants are out on bail and no trial date has been set as of Tuesday. Information was not available about juveniles.
The three burglaries and an attempted burglary occurred during the overnight hours between Sept. 24 and Nov. 20 2022. The defendants, who allegedly include members of a violent juvenile street gang in Philadelphia, entered the stores, smashed display cases and grabbed firearms before fleeing , police said.
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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Middletown gun shop burglary leads to chase, crash in Trenton
