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***WARNING*** This is not a rant toward GeeW. This is not a rant toward Dakka. This is not a rant toward Gamers. This is me venting w/ a group of people that I share a common intrest w/. ***WARNING***

(MODS if this is not the place for it, then please feel free to lock it. Just looking for some place to vent)

We all know the economy is in the crapper. We know that. Things are hard all around. But there is a time to draw a line and say ENOUGH!!! The actions of a group of people (at least 2 if not more) has done something that does not affect just one person, it WILL affect a family!

I found out that my LGS "Armoury Games" in Pickerington, OH was broken into this weekend and about 1/3 to 1/2 (guesstimate) of the merchandise was taken along w/ a substantial amount of cash. (Before anyone says anything, me talking about this was okay'ed by the owner.) Here is the kicker, the merch. was all GeeW stuff. There was the cash taken and a couple of boxes of Magic cards were taken along w/ the surveillance tape. All of the GeeW stuff that ranged from 40K Eldar all the way down to the new Scaven stuff. The new army totes were taken along w/ the new Fortress of Redemption. All of the armybook and codex except for 3 of the catalogs. The cash was hidden in a special spot, in an unmarked box that only a select few knew about it. Someone asked how much was taken and the actual amount was not given but he did say it was in the 5 digits.

After learning about this, it took a while to sink in. And once it did sink in, it PI*SED me off. BIG TIME!

First off, this is not some big time company that can recoup the losses. This is a locally owned business. This is a co. that one man put time, $$$, sweat and tears into. And some piece of D'Bag, scumbags thought it would be "fun" to break in and decimate this mans life! Yes, there is insurance that will cover most of it, but still that is not the point. There is the dreaded feeling that the Armoury may be no more! And that BLOWS. Not just cause I go there and hang out. Not because me and my friends hang out there.

What gets me even more is I am a husband and a father and I know how tough it is to support them. I do my darnest, but if some D'Bag came in an took my paycheck from me, I would be devastated! This man's lively hood was taken from him. What those D'Bags did was the same as walking in and taking the food off his families table. Am I being overdramatic? I'm sure if you asked Bruce how he felt, it would be something along those lines.

Sorry if this is kinda scattered. It sucks. It sucks because I know Bruce personally. We talked about other stuff than games stuff. We talked about owning a business, about things we have in common, about being family men. It sucks for me because I know the face behind the counter on a personal level.

I know there are a few people here on Dakka who go to the Armoury and this may come as a shock, but sometimes reality can suck. Anyone who knows Bruce or likes to hang at the Armoury might want to go down and visit or call Bruce and give him a word of encouragement. Just a suggestion.

To the people involved w/ this action: Your parents would be ashamed! You piece of monkey whore! If you were any sort of a man, you would turn yourselves in, but you checked you brain and nuts at the door! off!

Okay, you're angry, I get it. Theives are bad people. We know this.

Yikes , does he have insurance to help cover something?
Are the police involved?
Did the suspect know exactly what to take?

Chances are they are customers that have been to the store...

If they knew about the security tape and the location of the cash and just what was valuable and what wasn't then it does reek of an inside job.

Don't get mad, get even. Put on your thinking cap and start sleuthing...

Then when you find leads, turn them over to the Fuzz.

Yep. All of the suggestions have been done. The police were contacted. Store untouched until the arrived. Etc, etc, etc.

Funny thing is one of Bruce's good friends and fellow gamer is a detective on the force and IS involved in the investigation.

May not be reviled, but there are some details left out.

Oh, and thanks Dread. Your new job is to be a counselor to people who need help. You would do wonders. After they jumped off a roof.

brotherskeeper74 wrote:Yep. All of the suggestions have been done. The police were contacted. Store untouched until the arrived. Etc, etc, etc.

Funny thing is one of Bruce's good friends and fellow gamer is a detective on the force and IS involved in the investigation.

May not be reviled, but there are some details left out.

Oh, and thanks Dread. Your new job is to be a counselor to people who need help. You would do wonders. After they jumped off a roof.

Well make sure to inform us when they have been caught!

I hope he recovers from this and the scum that did this are brought to justice.

I hope your friend gets his insurance claim quickly. It is a shame that this happened right before Christmas so it is like a double financial kick in the nads.

I have heard of the armoury but never visited and a shame to hear that happened to a small store owner of a shop and at the worst possible time. Hopefully he is able to recover his losses and keep the store open.

That's horrible, but I gotta ask... what's up with hiding tens of thousands of bucks in cash in a box in a game store?

I have been to the Armory about 3 times since the summer (hard to get to that side of town).. but the store always struck me as a great "gamer haven" .. owner willing to shoot the bull, casual tables for gaming, no pressured sales, etc.

This sucks.

lord_blackfang wrote:That's horrible, but I gotta ask... what's up with hiding tens of thousands of bucks in cash in a box in a game store?

Yeah, not to pile on, but the stores I've worked at only kept a few hundred bucks in change on hand, and even that went into a safe at night.

Best of luck on the investigation, there has to be a pretty limited suspect pool, and GW stuff isn't' exactly easy to fence.

brotherskeeper74 wrote:The cash was hidden in a special spot, in an unmarked box that only a select few knew about it. Someone asked how much was taken and the actual amount was not given but he did say it was in the 5 digits.

Why was that much cash laying around?

lord_blackfang wrote:That's horrible, but I gotta ask... what's up with hiding tens of thousands of bucks in cash in a box in a game store?

+1

Polonius wrote:

lord_blackfang wrote:That's horrible, but I gotta ask... what's up with hiding tens of thousands of bucks in cash in a box in a game store?

Yeah, not to pile on, but the stores I've worked at only kept a few hundred bucks in change on hand, and even that went into a safe at night.

Best of luck on the investigation, there has to be a pretty limited suspect pool, and GW stuff isn't' exactly easy to fence.

+ another 1.

Shame this happened, but on the other hand, hopefully the owner has insurance and hopefully the owner learns to use a bank next time.

I hope it all gets sorted mate. I don't have a LGS other than GW but if did I'd spend a lot of time there.


Kinda OT but - my friends housemate caught a criminal that broke into his house by dusting for prints himself. He found finger prints on a biscuit tin and called the police who then scanned their databases for a match, hey presto he was on there.


So maybe dust the kitchens cookie jar?

Slappywag wrote:I hope it all gets sorted mate. I don't have a LGS other than GW but if did I'd spend a lot of time there.


Kinda OT but - my friends housemate caught a criminal that broke into his house by dusting for prints himself. He found finger prints on a biscuit tin and called the police who then scanned their databases for a match, hey presto he was on there.


So maybe dust the kitchens cookie jar?

Surely that wouldn't stand up in court though (assuming the criminal demanded a trial)? Don't fingerprints have to be taken by a specialist in order to count as forensic evidence rather than some joe schmo with a roll of sellotape and some talcum powder?

He was an ex-policeman or something in Lithuania. I'll try and find the story for you. He is now studying for a degree in Law and something else i can't remember.

EDIT - I found the story but it doesn't mention him doing the dusting himself...strange? In the paper copy it did though.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/displayarticle.asp?id=305242

Slappywag wrote:He was an ex-policeman. I'll try and find the story for you. However, he was a policeman in Lithuania. He is now studying for a degree in Law and something else i can't remember.

Well that makes sense in that it explains that he would be competent enough to lift the prints but I really do think that any semi competent lawyer would be able to drive a bus through a hole that size!

filbert wrote:

Slappywag wrote:He was an ex-policeman. I'll try and find the story for you. However, he was a policeman in Lithuania. He is now studying for a degree in Law and something else i can't remember.

Well that makes sense in that it explains that he would be competent enough to lift the prints but I really do think that any semi competent lawyer would be able to drive a bus through a hole that size!

I dunno mate, I wasn't there. lol

Perhaps they conducted their own after they came to check it out. I don't know the in and outs exactly.

Still, pretty funny.

brotherskeeper74 wrote:Oh, and thanks Dread. Your new job is to be a counselor to people who need help. You would do wonders. After they jumped off a roof.

Sometimes the solution to morale issues is to fire all the unhappy people.

So yeah, I'm sure your situation sucks but I felt you were being overdramatic.

Sucks they got knocked over. But the whole, "We'll just leave this here." in regards to a pile of cash is abject stupidity at best.

filbert wrote:

Slappywag wrote:I hope it all gets sorted mate. I don't have a LGS other than GW but if did I'd spend a lot of time there.


Kinda OT but - my friends housemate caught a criminal that broke into his house by dusting for prints himself. He found finger prints on a biscuit tin and called the police who then scanned their databases for a match, hey presto he was on there.


So maybe dust the kitchens cookie jar?

Surely that wouldn't stand up in court though (assuming the criminal demanded a trial)? Don't fingerprints have to be taken by a specialist in order to count as forensic evidence rather than some joe schmo with a roll of sellotape and some talcum powder?

I don't know about the English rules of evidence, but in the US, you can generally admit any evidence that is relevant to an issue in the trial. Here, the person dusting for prints could simply testify that he found them, and then handed them to an expert.

There are rules for expert testimony, but that's when a person is testifying as to what should happen, or what happened in a reproduction. A material witness, one that literally saw or heard something, can almost always testify. It's a question for the jury, as the finder of fact, to determine how credible it is.

So, the jury would be allowed to hear this story, but is also free to think, "wait, some guy dusted prints on his own? I don't know about that..."

I have to chime in here. I would like to think of myself as friends with Brothers keeper, and I know the store owner in question. It is most certainly my home base for gaming. The problem is that the market locally has gone in the crapper. Way too many people buying their stuff on the net and then taking it to the FLGS to game with. While I'm glad to have the people to game with, we all need to support our FLGS or they won't be around for us to support. The Armoury has been around for nearly ten years, and deserves better than this.

Best wishes to Bruce and his family, anlong with the store employees and theirs. I hope we string this one up by his scrotum for this.

The Dreadnote wrote:

brotherskeeper74 wrote:Oh, and thanks Dread. Your new job is to be a counselor to people who need help. You would do wonders. After they jumped off a roof.

Sometimes the solution to morale issues is to fire all the unhappy people.

So yeah, I'm sure your situation sucks but I felt you were being overdramatic.

Well...Your underdramatic!!


But seriously, that sucks man. Maybe it was TFG that lost one time to much in the store

The Dreadnote wrote:

brotherskeeper74 wrote:Oh, and thanks Dread. Your new job is to be a counselor to people who need help. You would do wonders. After they jumped off a roof.

Sometimes the solution to morale issues is to fire all the unhappy people.

So yeah, I'm sure your situation sucks but I felt you were being overdramatic.

Ok so as a former store owner believe me I feel for you especially since well I hate theives. does sound like an inside job, and to me that is even sader. One of my former partners we found ahd stolen over 10k in money and product from the store over a 2 year stint so I understand the feeling especially during the holidays. A game store owner doesnt get into that line of work to get rich( ha I wish) far from it in fact often they have to work multiple jobs to support the bus. They do it because of a love fo the hobby.

Was definitely an inside job. I hope the store is able to recover.

olympia wrote:Was definitely an inside job. I hope the store is able to recover.

that's my thought. and I still don't know what they were thinking leaving a "box" of money "hidden" in the store.

It's called a safe. If you can't trust a bank. Buy a safe. Put the safe in your -house-. then buy a gun.

Howlingmoon wrote:

olympia wrote:Was definitely an inside job. I hope the store is able to recover.

that's my thought. and I still don't know what they were thinking leaving a "box" of money "hidden" in the store.

It's called a safe. If you can't trust a bank. Buy a safe. Put the safe in your -house-. then buy a gun.

The suspicious side of me thinks it's untaxed earnings.

The less suspicious side of me thinks it's so he can wheel and deal in used items.

(EDIT: and to keep things off the books).

Howlingmoon wrote:

olympia wrote:Was definitely an inside job. I hope the store is able to recover.

that's my thought. and I still don't know what they were thinking leaving a "box" of money "hidden" in the store.

It's called a safe. If you can't trust a bank. Buy a safe. Put the safe in your -house-. then buy a gun.

Well for starters a lot of stores don't do "midnight drops" for security reasons, because if you get robbed while on the way then the moneyis not insured. If the store gets robbed, as long as the money is on the premisis the insurance company will count that as covered. Although I do tend to agree with you as it is not smart during the holidays to leave that kind of money laying around. A bank can always hire an armed service on the cheap to take your deposits for the month from your business to the bank. That way if anything happens then the cash is covered by the insurance.