New Kensington gun store moves to new location after January burglary
NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. (KDKA) -- The owners of a gun store in New Kensington have moved to a new location after a burglary earlier this year.
RC Firearms opened its new location along Seventh Street Road, just over a mile away from its old location along Freeport Street.
The owners tell KDKA-TV that they were planning to construct a new building, but instead decided to fortify the glass shop they own there at the same spot.
Agents with the ATF filed federal charges against Michael Guin and Steyn Sarduy, who they say rammed a stolen pickup truck through the old store's front door, busted into multiple glass display cases with a hammer and took a total of 24 guns inside. So far, the ATF has only recovered three.
"We thought we had everything, but we didn't think about somebody driving a truck through the door," owner Roy Berg said.
The new building is located in a more remote part of town and now features heavy bars over both the front door of the glass business it shares a space with and there's a gate to get to the door to the gun shop entrance at the back of the building.
In addition to surveillance cameras inside and outside the building, the owners have also installed unbreakable display cases and a special lock on their rifles for sale.
"I don't know what more I could do unless I dig a hole in the ground and make it a bunker," Berg said.
"I'm not going to put anything past anybody anymore after that happened down there. My gut feeling says somebody will try, but my sensible part says there's just no way," Berg said.
He said if there's one positive out of this, it's the amount of people who have discovered their business since the burglary.
January's burglary and ensuing federal indictment
Two men have been indicted by a federal grand jury in the January burglary and are accused of using a truck to smash into the front of the store and stealing two dozen guns.
Agents with the ATF charged Michael Guin and Steyn Sarduy in the incident, which was captured on surveillance cameras.
The ATF said they used a stolen pickup truck to ram through the front door and, once inside, busted into multiple glass display cases with a hammer, grabbed 24 guns, and stuffed them into a backpack.
Guin and Surduy have pleaded not guilty to the charges they are facing.
Searching for the stolen weapons
Following the burglary, numerous local law enforcement agencies teamed up to search the banks of the Allegheny River in Lower Burrell after one of the suspects shared with police that nearly a dozen of the stolen guns were stashed in the water, according to sources.
At least three of the two dozen stolen guns have been recovered.