Harvey Weapons Stolen

How did anyone think this might be a good idea?

• Nearly two dozen weapons, including high-powered assault rifles, were stolen from a shooting range belonging to south suburban Harvey police, prompting a statewide alert this week.

  At least 21 weapons, which included handguns, MP5 and AR-15 assault rifles, were reported stolen from a trailer on the semi-wooded property of the shooting range at 153rd Street and Campbell Avenue about 9 a.m. Monday, according to Harvey police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

• By Tuesday evening, mere hours after Cook County sheriff's officials agreed to join the probe on the sole condition that their investigation be independent of Harvey police's, sheriff's officials had pulled out of the investigation, claiming that Harvey officials weren't cooperating, a spokesman said.

  Sheriff Tom Dart has been critical of Harvey's internal operations and his department was part of a task force that raided Harvey's police station in January 2007, seizing evidence from unsolved crimes. Investigators from state police and the state's attorney's office subsequently filed murder and attempted murder charges using the seized evidence.

  Law enforcement sources said the shooting range wasn't a secure facility and isn't equipped for storing weapons.

Yeah, no shit. The Harvey "range" was pretty much sand piles pushed up about 30 feet high with what looks like a broken concrete tennis court for a firing line and a bunch of semi-trailer modules for storage.

Whatever happened to the state-of-the-art range we were supposed to get years ago? While it's amusing that a major metropolitan police department had to go most of 2009 without an active range and the supposed rehab continues on numerous other ranges, it kind of crimps firearm training to have to use the Harvey gravel pit instead of a facility we would own.