
Hoover Tactical Firearms
Hoover Tactical Firearms at 1561 Montgomery Highway in Hoover, Alabama
Vestavia Hills police this morning caught a 13-year-old boy that Hoover police say shattered a window at Hoover Tactical Firearms last night and stole five guns from a display case.
The incident happened at 10:10 p.m. Monday, when a burglary alarm went off at Hoover Tactical Firearms at 1561 Montgomery Highway.
Officers arrived on the scene to find a front window shattered and damage to a display case inside, but there was no one there, Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector said.
Video surveillance footage from the store showed a young male breaking into the store and into the display case, and about three hours later, Vestavia Hills police spotted a suspicious male matching the burglar description hiding among the cars at Hollywood Imports at 1472 Montgomery Highway in Vestavia Hills, Rector said.
The 13-year-old boy, whose name was withheld because of his age, had a handgun in his possession and was turned over to Hoover police officers, Rector said. The boy then led officers to four other stolen handguns he had hidden behind two nearby businesses, Rector said.
The boy was the only person on the video surveillance footage and claimed he was acting alone and had walked from western Birmingham to Hoover, Rector said.
“I’m not sure we believe that,” Rector said. “We just believe there were others involved and maybe his ride left him. We find it hard to believe he had walked from Birmingham.”
Police are not sure what the boy did during those three hours because he could have walked farther than that in that timeframe, Rector said. The two locations are about eight-tenths of a mile apart.
Evidence at the scene indicated the boy used a large rock and a wooden pallet to gain entry into the store.
After the boy was questioned by police, he was taken this morning to Jefferson County Family Court. The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office issued petitions against him for theft and burglary.
Rector said it’s uncertain what will happen to the boy. That may depend on whether he has a previous criminal record, he said.