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151 guns were stolen in Belleville IL.
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
151 guns were stolen in Belleville By Robert Goodrich Of The Post-Dispatch Heather Ratcliffe Of The Post- Dispatch Contributed To This Report. St. Clair County authorities knew confiscated guns were missing from a storage room; they just didn't know how many.But after a sting that netted one arrest and five pistols, investigators now say 151 weapons were taken from a storage room in the St. Clair County building in a series of thefts discovered two weeks ago.Seven pistols have been recovered. The rest are unaccounted for, said Sgt. Dave Thornton.One of the recovered weapons, a semiautomatic pistol, was found last month near the scene of a shooting in Bridgeton. Police have made no arrests in the case and say the victim has given different accounts of what happened.Illinois State Police confiscated and returned another pistol, but Thornton said he had no details on how it was recovered.Thornton said five guns were confiscated from the man police believe took the pistols. He was arrested the night of Jan. 9 in a sting operation as he emerged from the storage room at the county building.Night custodian Joseph Williams, 33, of East St. Louis, was charged with three counts of burglary. He is accused of taking pistols Jan. 9 and the two previous nights.He also is charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, based on a conviction in March 1995 for aggravated battery. He faces no charges involving any of the other missing weapons.The 151 pistols were seized in arrests or investigations by various law enforcement agencies in St. Clair County. The storage of the weapons was the responsibility of Circuit Clerk C. Barney Metz. Employees in his office discovered that weapons were missing when an area police department asked for the return of some it had confiscated. Metz asked the Sheriff's Department to immediately investigate.Thornton said members of the department's drug tactical unit helped with the sting. "We did some surveillance on the evidence room and caught the guy coming out with the guns," he said.Authorities say Williams somehow got a key from a deputy clerk's desk. He could face up to 15 years in prison. He is being held at the St. Clair County Jail. Bail was set at $100,000.Authorities believe Williams acted alone but the investigation is continuing, Thornton said.Williams worked for Foley Maintenance Service, based in Caseyville. It has a contract with the county's Public Building Commission.Officials at Foley were unavailable for comment.Metz said only pistols were taken. Rifles and some pistols were left behind.None of the missing pistols was being held as evidence, Metz said. Weapons that might be needed for trial are kept separately in a locked vault.All the missing firearms would eventually have been turned over to the Sheriff's Department to be destroyed unless retrieved by the police department that confiscated them.Metz said his office takes in 50 to 60 firearms a year and each is documented and recorded. The Sheriff's Department clears them out every three years or so.At one time they were taken to a foundry to be melted down, but a few years ago Sheriff Mearl J. Justus began selling higher-quality guns to legitimate dealers, with proceeds used for law enforcement purposes.Metz said security has been tightened at his office. "The procedure remains the same, but we have put more security on the gun room," he said. That includes a solid door and double locks.Thornton said police agencies around the area were on the lookout for the missing weapons. But, he acknowledged, "It's hard to track them once they hit the streets." http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel/pdweb.nsf/TodayThursday/86256A0E0068FE5086256B4B00394B3D
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