SAN ANTONIO — VFW Post 8397 has released video of the thieves who raided their gun safe Friday morning.
The video reveals that a crew of at least three people were involved in the burglary and one individual, who was in the white van involved in the crime, was not wearing a mask.
The white van pulled up to the front door of the VFW just before 5 a.m. on Friday. Two men cut though the door's steel locking mechanism and then squeezed through with an axe to knock out the bar on the door.
The pair of masked individuals then went into the office, destroyed a security panel, and started prying the safe off the ground. They eventually got the safe free and wheeled it out on a dolly.
Now the post must spend more than $2,000 on building repairs and will need to replace eight ceremonial rifles used by their volunteer honor guard in veteran funeral services.
The post has started a GoFundMe to pay for building repairs.
The M1 Garand rifles were modified to fire blank rounds. They'll be expensive to replace but of little worth to the people who stole them. Post Commander Cris Vierya Jr. said it's a huge blow to their volunteer honor guard that already gives so much.
"There is not enough military honor guards to provide honors for funerals. This is a group of volunteers that volunteer their own time, their own money, their own uniforms," Vierya Jr said. "We provide final military honors. We do the three volleys, what you call a 21-gun salute, we sound taps, we fold the flag."
Vierya Jr. told KENS 5 that they were already scheduled for funerals this year and that it would currently be impossible to do without their guns. Honor Guard Captain Alfredo Dominguez III said the rifles likely cost more than $1000 each. He said the burglary hurts not only their post, but all the families they serve.
"Some people have never seen this until they get to the funeral and they get very emotional. To deprive this to other veterans families, that's a very bad thing," Dominguez said.
Dominguez said the rifles used for these purpose are WWII weapons are also not easy to find. He said they also need to be assigned VFW Texas. The post is now looking into starting fundraisers to pay part of that cost. Dominguez is still hoping someone will see the guns and contact the post, or SAPD, to help make things right.
"I just hope that if anybody knows anything they come forward and let the police department know," Dominguez said.