SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah — Troy Thompson has been the owner of 1st Cash Pawn and Gun Store for 25 years.
In that time, he says he has never experienced a burglary at his store as bad as the one that took place Friday morning.
Just after 4:15 a.m., security video from his store captured a group of people pulling up to his business.
"The front doors were totally removed from the front of the building and looked like a war scene," said Thompson. "They would have had to have broken the glass and then wrapped around the frame of the door also wrapping around the security bars also and then hooked to this SUV and then backed up into our parking lot."
Thompson says several cameras, both inside and outside of the building showed multiple people making their way inside the store.
"The rest of them kind of went this way and broke this case," Thompson said as he took FOX 13 News through his store.
He says the suspects took some jewelry first, valued at about $100, before making their way over to a showcase area where several handguns were displayed.
"This is the one they would have kicked in," Thompson pointed out.
Thompson said nine handguns were taken during the burglary, which he says played out in just three minutes time.
"They've kind of identified the guns they wanted and they were the smaller, maybe concealable type handguns," said Thompson.
Many of those guns, Thompson says, were similar to a Glock 43X.
In all, he says the guns taken total about $5,000 in value.
He says he has reported the serial numbers of each gun to the South Salt Lake Police Department and the ATF.
"Those guns are now listed as stolen, and if there someone has pulled over in possession of those guns, they will do jail time — 10-year minimum on handgun or firearms-related stolen firearms," said Thompson.
Now, Thompson is hopeful police, or even the public, can help identify the suspects or the car in the security video.
"My biggest hope is that they can find one of those one or all those stolen guns and when they do they find them with the people who were involved," said Thompson.
On top of the guns being taken, Thompson says the cost to fix the damage outside his store will be even more, estimating that will be several thousand dollars to repair.
FOX 13 News spoke with South Salt Lake Police Monday afternoon.
They said they are currently working with the ATF to locate the guns and make an arrest in this case.
They are asking anyone with any information to call them at (801) 840-4000.
Thompson shared a full 7-minute video clip from his surveillance cameras showing both inside and outside the store. It can be seen below.
