By Chad Love

I'm as big a fishing gearhead as the next guy, and on more than one occasion I've remarked the only way I'd ever be able to own a particularly spendy piece of equipment would be to steal it. I was just joking. These guys weren't.

From this story on Wales Online:
It reads like the plot of a classic heist movie: daring thieves tunnel through three walls to steal their loot. But this was exactly how a gang of burglars raided a Cardiff fishing shop at the weekend. The crooks bore their way from a derelict pub to get into Anglers’ Supplies, on Penarth Road, in Grangetown, and made off with thousands of pounds worth of air rifles and fishing equipment. The theft bears remarkable similarities to the 2008 thriller The Bank Job, starring Jason Statham.

In the film, Statham’s gang lease a shop and tunnel through a takeaway to reach an underground bank vault. Local councillors were last night worried that the stolen air rifles could now be sold on the black market and flood the city’s streets. The thieves are thought to have first broken into the Baroness Windsor, an abandoned Victorian pub set to be converted into flats. They then cut through the brickwork of the 130-year-old boozer, before tunnelling a 2ft by 1ft passage through two breeze block walls into the rear of the shop. Owner Mike Miles, who has run the store for 40 years, only noticed what had happened as he opened up on Saturday morning. “I noticed a fishing rod was at an angle and there were some boxes on the floor and the alarm was making a funny noise,” he said.

The only thing more interesting than the way the heist was pulled off was the reaction from the local councillors. Apparently they're terrified by the prospect of Cardiff's streets being flooded with stolen...air rifles?

Comments (15)

from ilikehunting wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

England is weird.

-1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from huntnfishnut wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Oh heavens, the local bunny population had better watch out for the hordes who will be taking to the streets.

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from pbshooter1217 wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Whats the biggest thing you can kill with an air rifle?

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from MJC wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Future news headline: 'Cardiff, Wales, has recently seen an epidemic of people shooting their eyes out with air guns, despite the warnings of local councillors and mothers.'

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from jeffisutherland wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

I think a lot of people have to remember that England is very weird about firearm ownership in the urban centres. Even their police don't carry service firearms. I believe they do this because it will not encourage criminals to go out and get bigger guns. If you look at homicides by firearms in England in 2002, they were 0.15 deaths per 100,000. Then, looking at the United States, in 2001 it was 3.98 deaths per 100,000. I'm not saying owning a gun is bad or anything, because it isn't. It's just different cultures reacting to something in different ways.

(Info taken from Cukier and Sidel (2006) The Global Gun Epidemic. Praeger Security International. Westport.)

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from fliphuntr14 wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

That is very elaborate for fishing stuff and some air rifles these guys must of just had a bunch of time on there hands and the equipment and where still to broke to buy the stuff...

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from Carl Huber wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Like they say locks are for honest people. When I was a kid I shook hands with a famous bank robber Willie "the actor" Sutton. He later wrote a book Were the Money Is'nt. He stole Millions of dollars and broke out of Three Max. Prisons. Without ever showing a gun. He would have appreciated the tunnel but I don't think he liked to fish.

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from ricefarm wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Britian has fewer gun deaths but thieves break into peoples houses knowing they might be there with very little fear. Most of us remember the story of the career criminal who repeatedly broke into a farmer's house until one night the farmer shot him with his hunting shotgun. Guess which one the British courts wanted to put in jail?

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from huntenthusiest wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Somebody might put their eye out.

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from mexhunter wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Dude, I wouldn't even do that for $ Those must be SOME hardcore outdoorsmen! How did they make a hole that big without the owner realizing? England IS a little wierd.

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from ingebrigtsen wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

So what damage can u do with an airrifle?? well anyone remember that scene in trainspotting??:P
And to find the perps look for alot of dead birds and cats in an area and start checking around thur:P

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from Mike Plotner wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

i think i saw somthing like that on adam-12 once.

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from suburban bushwacker wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Chaps
Wales is a country, next to england but not IN england.
Just sayin 's all
SBW

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from suburban bushwacker wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

PS though yes, england is more than a little weird. But not nearly as weird as Wales
SBW

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from REM7400 wrote 1 year 29 weeks ago

You should see the air rifles people come up with when you take away their powder and primers...

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from huntnfishnut wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Oh heavens, the local bunny population had better watch out for the hordes who will be taking to the streets.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from jeffisutherland wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

I think a lot of people have to remember that England is very weird about firearm ownership in the urban centres. Even their police don't carry service firearms. I believe they do this because it will not encourage criminals to go out and get bigger guns. If you look at homicides by firearms in England in 2002, they were 0.15 deaths per 100,000. Then, looking at the United States, in 2001 it was 3.98 deaths per 100,000. I'm not saying owning a gun is bad or anything, because it isn't. It's just different cultures reacting to something in different ways.

(Info taken from Cukier and Sidel (2006) The Global Gun Epidemic. Praeger Security International. Westport.)

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Carl Huber wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Like they say locks are for honest people. When I was a kid I shook hands with a famous bank robber Willie "the actor" Sutton. He later wrote a book Were the Money Is'nt. He stole Millions of dollars and broke out of Three Max. Prisons. Without ever showing a gun. He would have appreciated the tunnel but I don't think he liked to fish.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from mexhunter wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Dude, I wouldn't even do that for $ Those must be SOME hardcore outdoorsmen! How did they make a hole that big without the owner realizing? England IS a little wierd.

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from ingebrigtsen wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

So what damage can u do with an airrifle?? well anyone remember that scene in trainspotting??:P
And to find the perps look for alot of dead birds and cats in an area and start checking around thur:P

+1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from pbshooter1217 wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Whats the biggest thing you can kill with an air rifle?

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from MJC wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Future news headline: 'Cardiff, Wales, has recently seen an epidemic of people shooting their eyes out with air guns, despite the warnings of local councillors and mothers.'

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from fliphuntr14 wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

That is very elaborate for fishing stuff and some air rifles these guys must of just had a bunch of time on there hands and the equipment and where still to broke to buy the stuff...

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from ricefarm wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Britian has fewer gun deaths but thieves break into peoples houses knowing they might be there with very little fear. Most of us remember the story of the career criminal who repeatedly broke into a farmer's house until one night the farmer shot him with his hunting shotgun. Guess which one the British courts wanted to put in jail?

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from huntenthusiest wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Somebody might put their eye out.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from Mike Plotner wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

i think i saw somthing like that on adam-12 once.

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from suburban bushwacker wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

Chaps
Wales is a country, next to england but not IN england.
Just sayin 's all
SBW

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from suburban bushwacker wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

PS though yes, england is more than a little weird. But not nearly as weird as Wales
SBW

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from REM7400 wrote 1 year 29 weeks ago

You should see the air rifles people come up with when you take away their powder and primers...

0 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

from ilikehunting wrote 1 year 30 weeks ago

England is weird.

-1 Good Comment? Yes | No | Report

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All submitted comments are subject to the rules set forth in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.