4 days ago
Owner speaks as dozens of guns stolen from shooting ground in 'major' break-in
Around £30,000 worth of stock including air rifles and a chainsaw were stolen from a shooting ground.
Polowood Shooting Ground, which is located on St Mary's Farm near Falmer, was victim to a break in, during which 25 air rifles, air rifle pellets, an extendable pole saw, a chain saw, a strimmer, a leaf blower and £1000 of food and drink from the tea hut were stolen.
Owner Gary Coomber, 61, met his staff at the farm on Friday morning (July 25) as usual, but when he approached the shooting ground, he saw the gate was wide open and 'knew someone had been in straight away'.
According to Gary, someone had accessed the shooting ground by crossing farm ground from Plumpton and had driven through a hedgerow and cut down two barbed wire fences in the process.
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Without CCTV, Gary is unable to ascertain the exact time of the break in, but it is believed to have been sometime between 4pm on Thursday and 8am on Friday.
'It's pretty major – the air rifles alone are £600 each so I reckon about £30,000 worth was taken', Gary said.
The ground has been victim to break-ins on three occasions in the past, but 'not for about seven years", he said.
The ground offers a selection of outdoor activities ranging from clay pigeon shooting to axe throwing and is popular with stag and hen dos, as well as hosting 'experience shooters'.
'We had 40 people booked in for tomorrow, so now we're having to dance around trying to beg and borrow some air rifles from elsewhere to make it work', Gary said.
Gary suspects the thief will be looking to sell the stolen goods, so is spreading news of the theft far and wide, in the hope it will make the loot 'too hot to handle'.
'I have let gun shop owners know so it seems like the jungle drums are working to some degree.'
