LOS ANGELES (AP) — Red-faced
police officials worked Monday to downplay the theft of dozens of weapons from a
SWAT training center, stressing the guns had been altered and could not fire live rounds.
The 15 MP-5
submachine guns and 15 Colt .45-caliber handguns had been adjusted to fire training rounds tipped with plastic instead of lead. Police said it would require specialized parts that are not available to the general public to convert them back to regular weapons.
"Right now these weapons are inert. They don't fire bullets," said Los Angeles police Cmdr.
Andy Smith. "It takes significant skill and significant parts to reconvert these back."
The weapons were stolen early Thursday from an inconspicuous, rundown-looking ex-factory downtown, about a mile from SWAT headquarters. SWAT members were scheduled to train at the facility that morning and arrived to find the building had been burglarized.
A series of metal doors had been broken and the robber went through a roll-up door, got into a secured storage area and took the weapons.
"It is embarrassing," Smith said. "With 10,000 officers, with thousands and thousands of guns, .... unfortunately stuff's going to get lost once in a while. This is a particularly bad one."
Firearms experts said changing the guns back to their original form would be difficult for any criminal because their barrels, firing pins and other components had been altered.
"The amount of money it would take to convert them back to being actual weapons would cost more than going out and buying an actual gun," said Amy Driver, a firearms expert witness.
"It's not something these crooks are going to be able to do," said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives firearms coordinator Ken Tomlinson.
Forensics experts and police detectives were looking at all possibilities, including if the theft was an inside job.
"You wonder if this was a planned operation, what information they had, whether they were conducting surveillance," Deputy Chief Michael Downing told the Los Angeles Times.
Since the theft, "appropriate measures" have been taken, Downing said, without providing details.
However, regional law enforcement agencies have been notified.
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Thomas Watkins can be reached at
http://www.twitter.com/thomaswatkins .
