A group of Philly teens stole nearly 20 guns from a Bucks County gun shop, according to police
LugarMan Inc., in Langhorne, was burglarized at about 3 a.m. Tuesday, police said. The suspects were arrested in Trenton after a long chase through the suburbs.
A group of Philadelphia teens burglarized a Bucks County gun store early Tuesday, according to police. The incident, which ended with three young people in custody, is the latest in a series of similar heists targeting gun stores in Bucks and Montgomery Counties.
A motion-sensor alarm at LugerMan Inc. in Langhorne notified police in Middletown Township at around 3 a.m., Detective Lt. Steve Forman said. When officers arrived, they saw a car pulling out of the store’s lot and followed it.
The Middletown Township officers continued to chase the vehicle as it sped away from the store, Forman said. Officers from nearby Falls Township assisted, throwing down a spike strip that struck the car’s tires but didn’t end the pursuit.
The teens continued to Morrisville and then over the Calhoun Street Bridge to Trenton, where they lost control of the car and crashed without injury, according to Forman. Trenton Police helped arrest three teens, who haven’t been identified and remain in custody in the New Jersey city as they await extradition to Bucks County.
Inside the car — which had been reported stolen from Philadelphia on May 23 — officers found nearly 20 guns taken from LugarMan, including .22 caliber pistols and AR-15 style rifles. All of the guns stolen in the burglary were recovered, Forman said.
The teenagers used a ladder to climb into the gun store through a rear window, according to Sal Cicalese, a gunsmith working at the shop. Video from inside the store, he said, showed the teens spent almost an hour trying to break into the store’s showroom, eventually smashing a metal door to get inside. LugarMan, however, specializes in manufacturing parts for antique firearms, and didn’t have a large stock of modern guns on hand .
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Police are investigating whether teens who broke into LugerMan are related to a Southwest Philadelphia street gang known as 54th Street that orchestrated a series of three similar gun store burglaries in Bucks and Montgomery Counties earlier this year, Forman said. Those smash-and-grab burglaries netted 93 guns, one of which was used in the murder of a 16-year-old in Philadelphia.
Thirteen members of the54th Street gang were charged, including nine juveniles between 14 and 17 years old. Their criminal cases are pending in Montgomery County.