ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – Officers with the Ormond Beach Police Department handled four different cases over the course of several days, all involving guns that were reported stolen from unlocked cars, police said Tuesday.
Each theft took place just five to ten minutes away from the next.
"A lot of people keep guns in their cars or on them,” Ken Newman said. “I usually leave mine in the car. I'm rethinking that.”
Newman said he woke up to a knock at his door from police at the beginning of December. Officers told him his truck had been ransacked on Laurel Ridge Break, and that his semi-automatic pistol had been stolen.
"It’s not in an obvious place, but it has been recommended that I take the gun in the house,” Newman said. “But that's hard to do.”
In another instance, police said it was Rev. Stephen Pessah's call at 1 a.m. that got them out to check the neighborhood. Pessah told police that he saw two men in hooded sweatshirts tugging on car doors.
"I'm glad I did it,” Pessah said. “I'm glad they responded. My good sense told me they were up to no good, so that's why I called 911.”
News 6 found out Newman's gun wasn't the only one stolen from Nov. 24 to Dec. 4.
Police documented three more guns taken out of unlocked cars in Ormond Beach. When questioned on the topic, officers said, gun owners losing or having their guns stolen does not affect their permit to carry.
But for Newman, it now serves as a lesson.
"Don't be stupid like me,” he said. “Lock your car.”
As for the four missing guns, police said they wrote down the serial numbers and put those into a database, just in case the weapon turned up in someone else’s possession.