An Indiana man who had over a dozen firearms worth roughly $10,000 stolen from him has an urgent message for gun owners: Don’t let strippers in your house.
Billy Swaggerty said last winter a woman he knew slightly appeared at his front door in Kokomo without a coat, asking if he had an extra bedroom. Despite his wife’s objection, Swaggerty said come on in. He said, “And I put her in the bedroom with the safes and it came back and bit me. The fact is she was a stripper is what we found out. We didn’t know that she was a stripper.”
He continued, “I had probably three .22 rifles, two shotguns, numerous pistols, I had an SKS which is .762 millimeter, I had an AK 74 which is a .554 millimeter and I had an AR 15 which I just got for Christmas which is a .556 millimeter.”
On May 3, Swaggerty returned home only to find his back door had been kicked in and his safes and the guns in them, some of them assault-style rifles, had been stolen. Haggerty discovered tire tracks in his side yard after the theft, commenting, “It wasn’t just her and they better brought a truck because they didn’t put them in a car.”
Swaggerty said ruefully, “Be careful who you tell, keep it to yourself, don’t be bragging about how many guns you got, be careful who you let into your house and make sure you buy a quality safe. And that’s another thing … don’t let strippers in your house.”
Swaggerty, who has the name of the person suspected of buying the stolen guns, said sadly, “Word is that she went to her drug dealer and sold my guns for $450. My worst fear is one of my guns is gonna kill a child.”
