$134,000 of Historic Firearms Stolen from Australia Museum in Theft

Late final month, greater than $134,000 value of historic firearms have been stolen from the Lithgow Small Arms Manufacturing unit Museum, main the Australian museum to shut for the “foreseeable future.”

In a press release posted to Fb, the museum mentioned that the theft, which occurred on August 25, led to “immeasurable harm” and that it “is not going to be reopening any time within the forseeable future. Now we have an terrible lot of labor to do and some main challenges to beat earlier than we are able to reopen.”

Police instructed ABC Information Australia that 27 handguns have been stolen from the museum by three individuals carrying balaclavas, who then drove off in a silver Toyota Land Cruiser. The automobile was then discovered burnt out in Bathurst a number of hours later. A number of the weapons have been from as way back because the 1860s, whereas others have been from the World Battle I and World Battle II eras, together with a P-38 Walther Luxus, a firearm typically utilized by the Nazis.

John Watson, the native Drug and Firearms Squad Commander Detective Superintendent, instructed ABC that there are worries that the firearms is likely to be made operational.

“Stolen firearms are a typical foreign money inside organised crime networks, which is why we’re asking the neighborhood to assist us discover these firearms and determine these concerned of their theft,” he mentioned.

The Lithgow Small Arms Manufacturing unit Museum is a community-owned museum situated on the outdated manufacturing unit web site. Along with its show of machine weapons, rifles, and handguns—lots of which have been manufactured on the manufacturing unit—the museum additionally shows nonmilitary objects manufactured on the web site, in addition to pictures and memorabilia associated to the historical past of Lithgow.