Agent's affidavit details security lapses in theft of 50 pistols in South Windsor

Nov. 1—A supervisor at the South Windsor warehouse from which a shipment of 50 9mm pistols was stolen in mid-August told federal agents that one of the doors to the warehouse didn't lock, according to an agent's affidavit.

The supervisor, who worked the 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, said that when he finished work on Saturday morning, he would lock other doors to the R+L Carriers' warehouse at 540 Sullivan Ave. and park two forklifts in front of the door that didn't lock, the agent reported.

The supervisor said he didn't believe employees on his shift knew about the unlocked door, according to the affidavit, by Special Agent Katrina Anderson of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. But the supervisor, who isn't named in the affidavit, added that, if anybody did know about the unlocked door, they would be able to get into the warehouse without much difficulty.

That was one of several security issues at the R+L warehouse mentioned in Anderson's affidavit, which was the basis for the federal arrest Thursday of Shameik Camara, 32, of Hartford.

Camara, who was an employee of the R+L warehouse, is charged with receipt and possession of items from an interstate shipment, possession of firearms by a felon, and possession of stolen firearms, Acting U.S. Attorney Leonard C. Boyle announced.

Camara was released on $100,000 bond but faces a hearing today on a prosecution motion to revoke the bond based on the accusation that he violated bond conditions shortly after his release by failing to spend the night at his father's home in Wolcott.

In her affidavit, Anderson quoted an R+L employee as telling South Windsor police there were no surveillance cameras at the South Windsor location.

SECURITY ISSUES

The following are among the security issues at the R+L Carriers' warehouse at 540 Sullivan Ave. in South Windsor detailed by a federal agent, based on interviews with employees and former employees, in an affidavit on the theft of 50 9mm pistols from the warehouse:

—A door to the warehouse wouldn't lock.

—There were no surveillance cameras at the location.

—The "trap trailer" used to store the pallet of pistols was most likely unlocked.

—The theft of the pistols wasn't reported to police until more than a month after they were found to be missing.

The agent quoted R+L employees as saying the pallet of pistols was stored in a "trap trailer," which she explained is used to store merchandise and is accessible from the warehouse through garage-style doors.

She quoted a former R+L employee as saying that the trap trailer's door most likely wasn't locked.

An R+L regional security manager reported the theft of the guns to South Windsor police on Sept. 16 and said they had been discovered missing more than a month earlier, on Aug. 15, according to the agent.

A supervisor said he learned of the missing guns Aug. 16 "but that he did not immediately treat it as a theft as the whole pallet of firearms was gone and there was no remaining debris that suggested something had been broken into and/or removed," the agent reported.

Efforts to reach R+L's media relations office via email and telephone have been unsuccessful.

The agent's affidavit goes on to describe how investigators developed Camara as a suspect in the gun theft by investigating online sales of sports trading cards and high-end speakers that were stolen from the R+L warehouse around the same time.

Anderson obtained a warrant for Camara's arrest on charges relating to the thefts of the trading cards and the speakers, A South Windsor police officer stopped his car as he left the R+L warehouse around 1:45 a.m. Thursday, the agent reported in a second affidavit.

Searches of the car Camara was driving produced a 9mm Zigana pistol, identified by its serial number as one of the 50 stolen from the warehouse, and two holsters from other Zigana pistol kits, the agent reported.

In an interview with law enforcement officers, Camara admitted stealing baseball cards, speakers, and two pistols, one of which he said he had given to his brother, who had loaned it to someone, from whom he was trying to get it back, the agent reported.

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