Thieves steal hunting equipment from soldier serving in Iraq

By Kelli Stopczynski (kstopczynski@wsbt.com)

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Items were recently stolen from SPC Brandon Horvath’s storage unit. He is currently serving in Iraq. (Photo provided)

By WSBT News1

Story Created: Oct 16, 2009 at 4:17 PM EST

Story Updated: Nov 3, 2009 at 9:22 AM EST

SOUTH BEND ― A father is begging thieves to return his son's personal belongings before he has to tell him thieves stole from him. But his son, SPC Brandon Horvath, is thousands of miles away in Iraq.

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These days, Joe Horvath doesn’t get to talk to his son very often.

“I talked to him Sunday, and he said it might be a week to 10 days before he's going to be able to get a hold of me because he's out on a mission,” said Joe.

And, in a way, he’s dreading the next conversation.

“I haven’t told him yet,” Joe told WSBT. “I know it’s going to be devastating to him and I don't want to break his spirits while he's over there. He's got a tough job.”

Before Brandon left for his tour of duty last spring, he moved everything out of his apartment and into a storage unit.

Earlier this week, Joe found out someone cut the fence at Great Lakes Storage, cut the lock on his son's unit and stole four hunting rifles, a bow and a chain saw.

The general manager for the storage unit said he does a drive-through every day to make sure everything's OK. He said when he went through Monday, the lock was on Brandon's storage unit. But when he went back through Tuesday, he noticed it was gone.

Police said they’ve responded to criminal activity there at least six times in the past few months. Melissa Simbeck, a manager for the storage units, said the owners are trying to beef up security.

“I know they’re working on it, and hopefully we can prevent this from happening again,” she said.

As for Joe, he’s hoping someone will come forward before he has to tell his son what happened.

“We know he’s going to be very upset,” he said. “Just return the stuff. That’s all we’re asking for.”

Joe is offering a $500 reward and Great Lakes Storage is offering $1,000 to the person or people who return everything that was stolen.

If you have any information, call Joe Horvath at (574) 298-5232.

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