Local break-in leads to several firearms being stolen; sniper rifle, AK-47 among stolen items

A burglary occurred at 201 North Myrtle this past weekend at which time several firearms were carried off.

“The burglary happened some time after 9:00 p.m. Friday evening. It was discovered at approximately 4:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon after the homeowner’s returned home,” Kimball Police Chief Darren Huff said.

Though the homeowners, Jay and Ashley Thurin, had some concerns that someone was targeting their house and knew what items were concealed inside, Huff’s main concern rests with the items that were taken.

“There were six long guns taken: a shotgun, a bird gun which is called a ‘super black eagle’ that was dipped in camouflage, three AR-15’S, one was an ArmaLite and the other two were Smith & Wesson M&Ps. The ArmaLite had an optic on it and had a vertical fore grip. The two M&Ps were optic ready but they had nothing on them. They did not have dust covers so that’s something that you don’t typically see,” Huff said.

According to Huff, a 50 BMG was also taken from the residence.

“A lot of the Middle Eastern snipers that are involved in the military use this weapon. This gun can hit a target about a mile away. It’s a big boy. It takes a bullet that’s about six inches long. There was a Chinese AK-47 as well,” Huff said.

However, the perpetrator not only snuck off with the firearms but also walked away with various other items from the house.

“There was also a Panasonic Toughbook that was taken. There were some prescription medication that was all narcotic. There was a bunch of power tools, He had a shop of a bunch of power tools, and they were all taken. There was quite an extensive list of those. An Xbox 360 was also taken,” Huff said.

Though the house was burglarized, there were no signs of forceful entry, because the house had been left unlocked.

“The back door was left unlocked, because the rest of his family lives here in town and go there often. The family that lives there actually left Friday afternoon, but a brother was over there until about 9:00 p.m. and when he left, everything was fine. It was only when the family that was gone got back Sunday that they noticed that they had been burglarized,” Huff said.

The investigation under way at the police department is in its early stages. However, Huff states that there are already a few suspects being looked at for the crime.

“We have our suspects, and we’re following up on that now. We’re just hoping that we can start narrowing it down and get some good people of interest that we can concentrate on,” Huff said.

The police are also going to reach out to local pawn shops to see if any of the stolen items have turned up.

“We’re going to do the normal stuff that we do with all kinds of burglaries like this where we let the pawn shops in the immediate areas everywhere from Scottsbluff and Gering to Cheyenne to Sidney know and notify them to be on the lookout for the items that were taken. If any of those items come into their store then they will notify us, and we can follow up at that point,” Huff said.

Though the investigation has not yielded as many leads as Huff would like, he’s confident that the burglar will be found and will answer for the criminal act.

“I spent probably about nine hours yesterday on this case alone. We’re going to keep going with it. I’m pretty relentless about burglaries. I’ve been lucky so far so I’m going to see where this one takes us. We’ll just keep plugging away,” Huff said.

Anyone who might have useful information that can aid the police department in their investigation can contact Chief Huff at the Kimball Police Department at 308-235-3608.