I actually ran into the owner of this music store this morning at Strictly Shooting here in Evansville.
Local Employees Coming To Work Armed
Local Employees Coming To Work Armed
Employees at a local music shop will now be coming to work armed.
Thursday morning, someone tried to break into Moore Music on Morgan avenue, again. The owner wants to send a powerful message by taking advantage of a state law.
According to Indiana law, citizens can have firearms in their homes and places of business even if they do not have a license. Moore Music employees say, it's time to take the law into their own hands.
The decision to have firearms inside the store isn't about money it's about safety.
The store's windows have been broken three times in six weeks. Two of those times the alarms sounded, police responded and those responsible got away empty handed, However, the damage cost the store thousands and that doesn't include the stolen merchandise.
"The perpetrator came through this window, ran into our store and got a particular guitar that I guess he had been in and seen before," said Brad Linzy the store manager. That incident happened on Tuesday, around 3:30 in the morning. The guitar was worth more than $1,300.
"We've had two armed robberies at gunpoint with in a block radius of us. We had one armed robbery down the street at Apollo Liquor we had another just last week at the Motto Mart and these are during business hours," said Linzy.
The store does have security camera's but they weren't able to catch anything. Now, security has been beefed up and employees will have weapons available for self defense purposes. "Everything so far happened at night but whose to say it wont happen during the day. If that's the case isn't it our responsibility to protect ourselves, our business and our property," said Dane Whitley the assistant manager.
Indiana law states, owners can have firearms at their business and allow employees to use them. The owner carries the liability. It is also the owner's responsibility to make sure the people who have access to the guns are not convicted felons, or anyone charged with domestic violence.
Moore Music is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the break-ins. The missing guitar's model is ESP LTD EC1000 Deluxe. The serial number is R0815789