UPS Is Taking Aim at Gun Thefts

An Oxnard gun store owner has become the latest victim of an increasingly common method of firearms theft: guns ordered by mail being stolen during shipping.

United Parcel Service, local police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are jointly investigating the theft of three semiautomatic pistols ordered by George Rice of Shooters Paradise.

“We’ve never tried to hide the fact that this happens,” said Norman Black, a UPS spokesman. “A majority [of other thefts] involved somebody working for us inside a packaging center.”

The problem has prompted UPS officials to change their gun shipping policy, Black said. Instead of ground-transporting weapons, all shipments must now be sent by overnight mail.

“Many fewer hands deal with it, and it dramatically reduces the time in transit,” Black said.

The new method also hikes the cost of buying a gun by about $30, store owners said.

Rice, who says more than 60 of his guns have been stolen en route to his store in the last 18 months, said the new UPS policy didn’t protect his recent shipment, which was stolen after the policy went into effect.

Rice and other gun store owners and sellers have tried to control the thefts by making parcels less attractive to thieves. For years, packages displayed the full names of both the distributor and buyer. Now they use initials.

In Rice’s case, authorities were able to track the guns to a Ventura UPS office, Black said. So far, no one has been arrested.

*

There’s been a major break in two serious gang shootings that rocked the city of Port Hueneme more than a year ago.

Prosecutors recently charged a 17-year-old Oxnard gang member with gunning down four people during two incidents in August 1998. He has been in custody at Juvenile Hall on an unrelated case since shortly after the shootings.

The teen was charged after authorities searched his home and found a gun that matched the description of the weapon used in the shootings, said Port Hueneme Police Sgt. Ken Dobbe.

Police say it took them a year to put the case together because they had to convince the victims, rival gang members, to cooperate. They were also waiting for ballistics tests on the 9-millimeter pistol allegedly used in the shootings, Dobbe said.

“Everyone in these matters would not discuss it,” Dobbe said. “In the beginning there was minimal cooperation, and it was difficult or impossible to find the motive.”

The teen, who is expected to be tried as an adult, is suspected of walking up to a group of rival gang members in the 400 block of North 5th Street on Aug. 21, 1998, and shooting three men.

“One victim was chased down and shot at close range when he fell between two parked cars,” Dobbe said.

One victim is paralyzed from the waist down, and another’s leg is permanently damaged.

In the second shooting in which the teen is charged, a shot was fired at a rival gang member eating in a crowded fast-food restaurant in the 700 block of Ventura Road on Aug. 24, 1998, authorities said. The victim was shot in the hand.

Some of the action was captured on surveillance tape.

The teen, who remains jailed, has pleaded not guilty.

*

In an effort to help gang members and others leave a life of crime and find jobs, the county will offer free tattoo removal in Santa Paula, starting this weekend.

The idea came from county Supervisor Kathy Long, who recently went on a police ride-along in Santa Paula and asked officers what could be done to help people who want to get out of the gang lifestyle.

People with gang insignias on their necks, arms and legs have had trouble securing legitimate work, officials said.

Santa Paula Police Officer Mike Dedecker said some of the newer gang members aren’t getting tattoos--but not because they are worried about finding work.

“Some gang members are getting away from it, because the tattoos can be shown to a jury” as evidence of gang membership, Dedecker said.

People who want a tattoo removed are required to perform 40 hours of community service or complete a certified self-help program and attend an orientation meeting from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Santa Paula Family Care Center.

Ventura resident Dr. Suraj Achar has offered to remove tattoos. He is a member of Doctors Without Borders, an organization that won a Nobel Peace Prize for its volunteer efforts in wartime.

Dedecker expects very few of Santa Paula’s more than 400 gang members will sign up.

“It will be interesting to see what happens,” Dedecker said.

*

Holly Wolcott can be reached at 653-7581 or by e-mail at holly.wolcott@latimes.com.