Assault rifles, pistols stolen from truck at Bellingham hotel

An arsenal of high-powered rifles was stolen from a truck outside a Bellingham hotel over the weekend, according to police.

On Sunday morning, Nov. 29, an employee walking through the parking lot of a La Quinta Inn, 1063 W. Bakerview Road, saw a window had been smashed out on a gray Ford F-350 pickup.

Police were called around 9 a.m. and learned from the pickup’s owner that the truck’s cab held three semi-automatic assault rifles, a sniper rifle, a shotgun, two pistols and a knife.

All were missing. The gun owner, a Colorado man, 39, posted a photo of the lost weapons on Craigslist. He listed them as:

▪  An Olympic Arms AR-15;

▪  A DS Arms FN FAL;

▪  An Arsenal Inc. SLR-95 AK;

▪  A custom Remington 700 sniper that takes .300 Win Mag ammo;

▪  A Mossberg 500 Breacher shotgun, with pistol-grip;

▪  A .40-caliber Sig Sauer SP2022;

▪  A .40-caliber CZ 75 pistol;

▪  And 750 rounds of ammunition, with bullets for each firearm.

All of the guns are black, except for the camouflaged Remington. They had been stored in a large Pelican-brand gun case on the floor of the pickup, said police Lt. Bob Vander Yacht.

The gun owner tried to cover the case with a pile of clothes, but it appears that did not work, police said. No other cars in the parking lot were broken into that morning.

Police did not know why the man, who has visited Bellingham before, brought guns on his trip.

“He just has guns, lots of guns,” Vander Yacht said.

Officers recovered security footage from a business in the area. Grainy video showed a passenger car drive into the parking lot around 4 a.m., according to the police. That car was likely used by the thief, but the video’s quality makes it impossible to tell the make or model, and little else can be seen on the video, Vander Yacht said.

Police continue to investigate.

Leaving a gun in a car is “just not good judgment,” Vander Yacht said.

“There’s never a good time to leave a gun locked up in a vehicle,” he said.

Gun safety groups suggest storing firearms in a locked safe, separate from ammo.

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Assault rifles, pistols stolen from truck at Bellingham hotel."