LANGHORNE, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Three Philadelphia teenagers are in custody, and two others are on the run, after they were caught fleeing a smash-and-grab burglary at a Bucks County gun store early Tuesday.
Middletown Township Police Lt. Steve Forman says patrol officers responded to an alarm at LugerMan Inc. on Old Lincoln Hwy around 3 a.m. As the officers arrived, they tried to stop a car leaving the gun shop, but the car drove off.
Neighboring Falls Township police set up a spike strip that punctured its tires, disabling the car. They made it across the Calhoun Street Bridge into New Jersey before crashing into a pole.
A 15-year-old and two 16-year-olds were taken into custody, two others got away. Forman said they took 21 guns, and it appears they have all been recovered.
Surveillance video shows the group struggling to break in for about 45 minutes, then making a phone call, and then eventually getting in through a second-story window, triggering an alarm, store owner Eugene Golubtsov told NBC10.
“They're standing there for about 15 minutes talking to somebody on the phone, it looks, figuring out what to do next, and then they start jumping on the second story windows, trying to get to them,” Golubtsov said.
“Cops did their job perfectly. I mean, they were here within three minutes of the call. If not for that, they would have lost them, but they didn’t.”
The car they were driving was reported stolen in Philadelphia last week.
Forman says it’s unclear at this point if the teens are affiliated with a ring of similar smash-and-grab gun store burglaries involving 13 people — including 11 juveniles — from Philadelphia’s 54th Street Gang who were charged in Montgomery County earlier this year.
Related
Related
NBC10 is a broadcast partner of KYW Newsradio.