Sheriff’s Pistols Secured in Safe After Burglary

Embarrassed Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials said Thursday that pistols used at their training facility will now be stored in newly purchased, 1,000-pound safes to avert another New Year’s Day-type burglary in which 42 of the weapons were stolen.

“It is embarrassing and upsetting to lose equipment this way, especially handguns,” said Walter W. Fath Jr., an assistant sheriff and a top aide to Sheriff Brad Gates.

Officials said nothing other than the pistols appeared to have been taken during the brash burglary at the Sheriff’s Training Facility on Katella Avenue. But they added that it would be impossible to tell if small amounts of ammunition were also missing.

Officials said an alarm system that should have alerted deputies at the department’s Santa Ana communications center was not working properly on Jan. 1, the day of the break-in. Deputies said the 19-year-old silent-alarm system had malfunctioned two days before the break-in but appeared to be working the next day.

Fath said the Sheriff’s Department will include about $25,000 in its next fiscal budget for a new alarm system for the training facility.

Investigators have recovered 23 of the stolen pistols so far, said Sgt. Kenneth L. Chism, who is charge of the facility’s firing range.

Investigators said that a convicted burglar who had worked at the facility as a trusty while serving a sentence in the County Jail broke into a shed where the weapons were stored, then allegedly sold some and traded others for drugs. Seven other people have also been arrested in connection with the case.

Chism said only 14 of the stolen pistols had been purchased by the county. The rest had been confiscated by law-enforcement agencies.

Fath, Chism and John Hood, a maintenance specialist at the facility, provided details of the break-in during a tour of the facility.

They said an intruder scaled a six-foot cinder-block wall by stepping on a backhoe that was parked by the wall. Once inside the compound, Chism said, the intruder cut a hole in the metal side of a maintenance building.

Chism said the intruder slipped through the small opening in the side of the building and pried open a door to a storage room where the pistols were stored on shelves.

Chism said the front door to the maintenance building was ajar when he arrived at work at 6:45 a.m. Jan. 2. It appeared that the burglar left the building through the front door, which opens onto a driveway at the front of the complex of buildings.

“My stomach dropped when I saw the outside door,” Chism said, adding that his worst fears were confirmed when he saw the door to the pistol-storage room partially open and splintered around the deadbolt.

Chism said some of the weapons taken were “in pretty bad shape” and were used in training exercises but never fired. The pistols will no longer be stored in the maintenance building but in the armory in one of the main buildings. Fath and Chism said two safes were purchased to store the pistols and that the alarm system has been checked by an alarm company.

Investigators said that two suspects in the case, Brian Lee Blomgren, 20, and Bonnie Jean Clark, 21, both of Fullerton, were arrested at Clark’s residence on Jan. 3 on suspicion of burglary. Officers recovered 10 of the pistols and confiscated a small amount of “rock” cocaine.

Six others have also been arrested in connection with the case. Four of them, Devin Michael Puckett, 22, of Anaheim; Bradley Dean Denson, 26, of Fullerton; and Gretchen Michelle Ales, 25, and Richard Joseph Johnson, 22, both of Stanton, were charged with receiving stolen property. Daniel Drew, 35, of Anaheim was arrested Jan. 5 on suspicion of possessing drugs for sale and possessing explosive devices. Steven Adkins, 21, of Westminster was arrested Jan. 9 on warrants stemming from drug charges.

Investigators said they had been tipped that Drew and Adkins had information about the stolen weapons, but no guns were recovered when the two were arrested.

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