Colorado burglary victim afraid after thieves steal 50 guns by hauling off with 3,000 pound safe
UPDATE: The stolen flatbed truck used to haul away the safe has been found and seized by the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office. It was recovered in Castle Rock. The safe, guns and ammunition remain missing.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff is looking for tips leading to the people who stole 50 guns in a heavy safe as well as a flatbed pickup and other items. It happened in a break-in last weekend on Highway 30 near the Space Force Base in Aurora.
"I'm afraid. You know I lost that security I had in my home," said burglary victim Kristie Fields. Fields and her husband had been out of town helping friends move their cows to winter pasture when thieves got into their outbuilding, apparently through a front window.
They stole tools, generators, a flatbed pickup truck and worst of all a heavy safe containing 50 guns.
"We had just come back from hunting the weekend before and locked everything in the safe like you're supposed to," said Fields.
Among the weapons, were family heirlooms, but some of the weapons were newer and potentially more lethal.
The thieves also stole 3,000 rounds of ammunition. The value of the loss is believed to be greater than $115,000 said the Arapahoe County Sheriff's office in a release.
RELATED: Arapahoe County deputies search for thief who stole 50 guns, pickup truck
"The sad thing is that the guns that were stolen are not going to go to people like me, who buy them legally," said Fields. "That's a big fear, the thought of one of our guns being used later on in a crime."
The thieves broke in sometime between Thursday and Saturday.
They used straps to pull the safe out of the building behind a vehicle. It likely weighed about 3,000 pounds. Scrapes in the driveway show it was dragged out of the building, then onto Highway 30 where the thieves drove East, possibly to an empty lot nearby where it may have been loaded onto a vehicle.
50 firearms and ammunition stolen in burglary
— Arapahoe Sheriff (@ArapahoeSO) October 26, 2023
Sheriff Investigators are trying to figure out who stole approximately 50 guns and ammunition, as well as a gun safe and a pick-up truck from an out-building of a home in Unincorporated Arapahoe County. Deputies responded to the… pic.twitter.com/Xm8zlGO1yF
The pickup that was stolen was a white 2016 Ram 5500 with a 12-foot flat bed. It had a Colorado license plate "DLM 406."
For Kristie and Dwayne Fields, it's hard to take.
"We've never even had a trash can stolen," said Kristie about their 30 years of living on the property. They have now changed locks and reprogrammed vehicles, worried that the thieves might come back.
"It's not the materialistic things. I'm now scared," she said.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff posted this request: "If you have any information on the vehicle or this crime, please call our Investigations Tipline at 720-874-8477. You can remain anonymous."