Defensive Carry banner

Burglars vs. the Cannon gun safe

30K views 34 replies 19 participants last post by  artz 
#1 ·
Luckily, and unluckily, I was not at home.

This past weekend I came home from visiting relatives to discover my home had been broken into and completely ransacked. :mad:

It\'s a 2-story condo end unit in what was once a relatively quiet complex - I found out while talking to the neighbors after the incident that not only I was burglarized, the next door neighbor and a neighbor in another unit a couple buildings over was also robbed in the past two weeks. So much for quiet.

They beat in the front door and left out the back, engaging the useless chain lock after they ruined my jamb.



They trashed my living room, my gym room, my hallway closets and my bedroom. They didn\'t touch my home office for only two reasons I can think of: when they found my gun safe, they concentrated on that, or when they saw my tarantulas in the office, they ran out screaming. :p

The gun safe is the size of your refridgerator, and I know it was more than one culprit, because it would take more than one guy to move a 600+ pound safe partially out of my closet where it was hidden.



They took one of my adjustable dumbbells apart and used it to beat the combo dial and turn wheel clean off, and mashed a crater in the top of the safe. They also used my FN49 bayonet and a butter knife to try to pry the safe open. Three cheers for Cannon gun safes - it did exactly what it was designed to do, and kept my guns safe.



And the only thing I could find stolen was my watch. My TV, DVD player, CDs, stereos, computer equipment, and everything else was untouched. I hide my good gold jewelry, so they didn\'t find that when they rifled through my jewelry box. I guess these guys were after small, concealable things of value.

Part of me is mad that I wasn\'t home, because my vehicle in the reserve parking spot could have been a deterrent. Part of me also wants to stop thieves. It\'s a violating feeling having strangers invade your home and go through your things and take them.

The other part of me is glad I was not home, because I could\'ve been alseep or in the shower when they broke in. Even if I wasn\'t caught off guard and managed to shoot every single one of them, the legal battle hasn\'t even started. I\'m not that anxious to shoot anybody anyway. I only do what I have to in order to stay alive.

Cannon has 100% warranty for their safes; the friendly technician said a locksmith and a new safe are on the way, paid for by them.

My home has been cleaned up and the door jamb fixed.

Better security has been installed, and this one I have programmed to go off downstairs when I\'m asleep upstairs.
 
See less See more
3
#3 ·
Sorry to hear about your loss. I\'ve had my home broken into before too. My neighbor saw the burglars break in and called 9-1-1 immediately as an \"in-progress\" call but the response wasn\'t able to arrive in time to do anything. The thieves were in and out in just minutes.

I enjoyed looking at the photos on your \"misc%20pics\" directory. The movie poster one made me laugh.

Chuck
 
#4 ·
I called the non-emergency policy number, and a cop responded in around 5 minutes. Several years ago, when my psycho-ex called and threatened to \"take me out\" (and I don\'t mean as a date), I called 911 and it took well over 20 minutes for someone to respond. Having a gun is a good thing.

If you backpedal into my ~betty directory, you\'ll find lots more gun pics. :cool:
 
#5 ·
Originally posted by Betty
*added: For some odd reason the IMG and URL tags aren\'t working and I can\'t even make the http clickable, so you\'ll just have to copy/paste to view the pics.
I haven\'t been able to figure this one out quite yet. I didn\'t change the setting, but I have had problems with this version of phpBBS posting multiple pics. I will continue to look into it. Multiple html links does still work.
 
G
#6 ·
Betty, a feeling of being \"violated\" is what everyone, and I mean everyone, says after being burglarized. Men and women alike. Everyone should keep their guns locked up when away from them. I see this sorta thing all the time.

Cannon fixes or replaces the safe free after being beat up? THAT is a damned good warranty.
 
#8 ·
Cannon has 100% warranty - they cover freight, locksmith, repair, new safe - everything I need. The friendly technician is finding a locksmith and will have both the locksmith and the new safe arrive around the same time so I\'m not stuck with a bunch of unlocked guns.

I\'m still wondering what the scenario would have been like had I been at home when these guys decided to break in. My vehicle\'s presence may have been enough to make them think I was home and so they\'d find an unoccupied target, but their boldness in entering through the front door makes me wonder if this was a home invasion and I just happened to not be there. I\'m armed all the time, my vulnerable moments being sleep and shower. Anyhow, I should just be thankful it didn\'t go down any worse and just leave it at that.
 
#9 ·
Originally posted by Betty
I\'m still wondering what the scenario would have been like had I been at home when these guys decided to break in. My vehicle\'s presence may have been enough to make them think I was home and so they\'d find an unoccupied target, but their boldness in entering through the front door makes me wonder if this was a home invasion and I just happened to not be there. I\'m armed all the time, my vulnerable moments being sleep and shower. Anyhow, I should just be thankful it didn\'t go down any worse and just leave it at that.
I would say be thankful you weren\'t there. The insurance will pay for the missing items, Cannon will take care of your safe and you won\'t have to find out about the legal system from the inside. I expect you would have come out the victor in a gunfight. Anyone that would try to use a bar from a dumbell and a butter knife to open that safe doesn\'t seem very smart. It would be sorta fun to catch one red handed without having to shoot the sucker. Anyway, we\'re glad you\'re okay. :)
 
#10 ·
Glad you\'re okay

Betty,

Like the others who have posted, I\'m glad you\'re okay.

My apartment was robbed many years ago. They got my .22 rifle that I got as a 15th birthday gift (no safe). They also took a locked jewelry box and a locked briefcase, probably figuring they contained valuable stuff. Well, the contents were worthless to them, but valuable to me: high school and college diplomas, ribbons and photos from high school track meets, and other misc. personal stuff. I hoped they would have the decency to drop the stuff off some night, but I\'m sure it all ended up in a dumpster or ditch - I never recovered any of it.

You most certainly feel violated when that happens (bast**ds!!), but time heals the wounds. Also, I certainly wouldn\'t want to trade places with any lowlife(s) that run around stealing from people. What kind of life is that?

It\'s good for you that you weren\'t home, but somehow I think you might take a little comfort knowing that they have no idea how fortunate they are that you weren\'t home. ;)

SSKC
 
#11 ·
Often, the worst part was the ammount of damage that they do while breaking in. I often hear about burglars doing $1000-2000 in structural damage in order to take $500 in goods which they will hock at ten-cents on the dollar.

If that\'s the pattern for a guy who\'s stealing to support a $200/day drug habit, think about how much financial damage ONE burglar can do in a community over a year.

$2500 loss per burglary*4 burglaries/day*365 days/year = $3650000 . . . 3.7 MILLION!
:mad:

It\'s economically important to catch these \"small time\" burglars.

Chuck
 
#16 ·
Wow, so sorry to hear this.
I\'m not SURE that your car being there would have been a deterent...thieves aren\'t all that smart! If they were, the cops wouldn\'t have a job.

The biggest learning experiance for me out of your disaster is the Cannon Safe. When I read your description of the lock, and handle being knocked off, I wondered how you were going to get your guns out,nice to hear that Cannon will take care of that.The big outcome is the safe remained locked.
(nice butter knife by the way)
Smart move for you to have your guns locked up as well. More people should learn from this.
Bottom line is you are not physically hurt, and all material things are covered by insurance, and no bad guys ended up with more armorment.
I did get to see the pics, thanks for posting.
 
#17 ·
I must say, I went and searched for your gun photos, and got hung-up on the photos of your physique. My bad.
I\'m impressed. I LOVE the \"Live free or die\" photo!
That is a poster shot for sure!
I would love that hanging in my garage!
i don\'t think I could get away with it hanging in the bedroom :D
 
#18 ·
Sorry Betty

Just happy that you & the little tarantulas are OK.
I\'m very sorry that happened to you but I sure am glad that your firearms & your good jewelry were not stolen & Kudos to Cannon for taking care of your safe.
Wow! I just clicked on that one link that you posted.
They sure did smash your front door in a \"good one\" - Sure looks like a home invasion to me. Stay Safe!
 
#19 ·
\"Little tarantulas?\" ;) Well, my smallest has a 3.5\" legspan, and the biggest has a 9\" legspan with fangs around an inch long.... but don\'t worry, that one can\'t run around on the ceiling. :p

While my parents and I were eating in a restaurant, mom said how happy she was that I was armed, because (ina strong Viet accent) \"you never know what those people can do - they rob you, they rape you, they kill you.\"

I looked at her and said, \"Yes, those kind of people never know who they\'re messing with. Maybe I\'ll rob them, rape them, and kill them.\"

Chinese food almost shot out my dad\'s nose. :lol:
 
#20 ·
Originally posted by Betty
While my parents and I were eating in a restaurant, mom said how happy she was that I was armed, because (ina strong Viet accent) \"you never know what those people can do - they rob you, they rape you, they kill you.\"

I looked at her and said, \"Yes, those kind of people never know who they\'re messing with. Maybe I\'ll rob them, rape them, and kill them.\"

Chinese food almost shot out my dad\'s nose. :lol:
You are a hoot, Betty :kay:
 
#22 ·
I have a Liberty safe, same type warranty, one feature on the Liberty, I don't know if other safes have this, is called "relockers" glass rods that will break if the safe is subjected to beating. Once these glass rods break they allow locking bars to drop into place to lock the opening wheel so even if you enter the correct combination (I also ordered the high security electronic combination lock) you can\'t open the door. Liberty will have to send someone with a drilling jig to get the precise location and angle to get through the 3/8" tool steel door and 1" tungston steel hard plate over the locking mechinism to open the door.

I have the safe bolted to the floor in a corner with only the door and left side exposed, the only "easy" way into the safe is to use a cutting torch on the left side. As I am a muzzel loader shooter and the safe has the highest fire rating of the Liberty safes, I store 5 1# cans of black powder on the left side of the safe, I wonder how much scrap metal needs to be collected to validate safe replacement???:D:devil:
 
#23 ·
UPDATE

After I have left multiple phone calls and messages to Cannon asking to be updated on the status of my warranty repair, the company has seen fit to not respond to my repeated attempts. This has been going on for a month now. I'm going to try different channels, but at this point, I believe Cannon does not back up their warranty. :tick:

I just sent them another email. I'll give them another week before I find my own means to get my safe open. If that's the case, I'll have nothing good to say about Cannon, and I will not be purchasing a Cannon as a replacement.

If they're having problems locating a locksmith or a replacement safe, all they have to do is respond to my messages, notifying me of the situation.

Not only are my guns exiled in the safe, my SWAT backup hard drive is in there, along with all my tax paperwork. I have four checks left, and the rest are in the safe. Luckily, places like the electric company can be paid online by credit card.

I'm getting really agitated.
 
#25 ·
Well, another update...

I sent them an email today through their "request info" option on their website (I linked them to this thread), and I received an email back from another customer service rep. He said he contacted the guy who is handling my situation, and he's supposed to get back to me.

I hope so. I don't like being Miss Crankypants. :ninja:
 
#26 ·
Good news - the Cannon rep finally got back to me and said he accidentally buried my paperwork on his desk. The locksmith called and he is ready whenever I am, and I'll be ready as soon as the new safe shows up. I can have my safe opened now, but I'm not going to be stuck with a bunch of unlocked guns. The Cannon rep said it would "take a while" for the new safe to come in. I hope "a while" doesn't mean "a month at least."
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top