Local law enforcement officials urge gun owners to document the serial number on their weapons to help recover them in the case of a theft.
“We’ve been chasing guns everywhere; that seems to be what everyone is stealing now,” Cherokee County sheriff’s Lt. Tiffany Holland said. “I’ve had four reports of stolen guns in the last week.”
Officials recently arrested a Marble resident who allegedly tried to sell a stolen gun through Facebook Messenger. Kimberly Tromablay Craig, 56, is charged with possession of a stolen firearm and obtaining property under false pretense.
Craig was previously convicted of felony possession of stolen goods in 2016, therefore, she is also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon.
Authorities say the gun owner’s daughter saw the weapon for sale on a Facebook Messenger thread and notified her father, who paid $75 to retrieve it. Officials say the gun owner noticed the weapon was missing from his residence in Murphy on Oct. 25 but didn’t report it stolen until two days later.
In the messages to sell the gun, Craig allegedly said the person who stole it was “in a hurry” to sell it because it was hot. After the owner retrieved the weapon, he notified police about the attempt to sell it through Facebook.
“Someone bought it, gave it to his daughter and his daughter gave it back to him,” Holland said. “He went that route instead of coming to us.”
Authorities interviewed Craig several times within a week before officially charging her in the theft. She allegedly told investigators she thought it was a BB gun, even though the messages list the stolen weapon as a .22 caliber firearm.
“She knew it was stolen,” Holland said. “She received money for selling something like it was hers to sell, but it wasn’t.”
Officials urge gun owners to keep a list of the serial numbers on their weapons in a place separate from the firearms.
“We can enter the serial number into a national crime information center, and it’ll show up as stolen anywhere in the United States,” Holland said.
When asked whether thieves are specifically targeting gun owners, Holland said, “It’s hard to say.”
“Usually, when a gun is stolen, other things are stolen as well,” she added. “I don’t know that they would necessarily know that those people have guns.”
Officials are still investigating the theft to determine who stole the gun from the owner’s residence.