Olympian's shotgun stolen

[zippy13]

From this morning's North County Times, Friday, 9/12/08:

Olympian's shotgun stolen
LAKE ELSINOR, CA - The Perazzi (MX12) shotgun used by two-time Olympic gold medalist Kimberly Rhode in four Olympic games was stolen Thursday afternoon while Rhode and her mother, Sharon Rhode, were shopping at the Lake Elsinore Outlets.
To help get it back, the Rhode family is offering a $5,000 reward, Sharon Rhode said Thursday.
Anyone with information is asked to call (626) 448-4131.

[cbm1948]

The Perazzi is a little out of my league, I've only seen two in my life, however I wish I could help find the thief just to watch him or her go to jail. Hopefully for a long, long time.

[zippy13]

Click here for a video

[crowbeaner]

Probably stolen by a crackhead to be sold to a dealer. It will most likely be sawed off for an illegal SBW and confiscated in a drug bust. What a shame; the thief doesn't even know the value of it I'll bet. What in hell were they shopping for and leave such a temptation in their car for?

[LanceOregon]

What in hell were they shopping for and leave such a temptation in their car for?

The story mentioned that she was shopping for her wedding.

One should never, ever leave any gun in a car anywhere when the gun's case can be seen through the vehicle's window. Thieves are always looking inside car windows for opportunities. If she had been driving a car instead of a pickup, and had the gun concealed in a trunk, this theft would have never happened.

A new Perazzi MX12 Competition shotgun like the one she had costs almost $20,000 new. So a $5,000 reward would save her a lot of money.

It was interesting to hear her talk about how she has been shooting that gun for 18 years. Especially in light of the fact that she is only 29 currently. Just do the math. She got the shotgun when she was only 11!!! When you also consider the extremely high volume of shooting that she does, that is quite amazing performance from any gun.

Perazzi shotguns do dominate Olympic Shotgun Target shooting. They won 11 out of the 15 shotgun shooting medals this summer in Beijing.

With two gold medals, one silver, and one bronze, Kim Rhodes has become one of America's best Olympic shooters ever.

.

[zippy13]

Kim's a SoCal girl, and the Lake Elsinor Outlet mall is the kind of place girls shop. It's north of the town of L. Elsinor, and immediately adjacent to I-15, the major SoCal inland north-south corridor. It's a typical factory outlet type mall with stores from companies like Bass, Gap, Izod, Liz Claiborn and Nike. Like some golfers, competitive shooters commonly have their shooting equipment along for the ride.
Several timesnt, I've stopped for a meal along I-15, with Perazzis aboard, and never thought much about it.

Probably stolen by a crackhead..

Down this way, the smart money is on illegal aliens.

It was interesting to hear her talk about how she has been shooting that gun for 18 years. Especially in light of the fact that she is only 29 currently. Just do the math. She got the shotgun when she was only 11!!!

I have the actual score sheet from a NSSA tournament in June of 1991. I'd bested 54 other shooters to win HOA and was quite pleased with myself, so I kept the score sheet. Kim was competitor #2 at that tournament and she was shooting a Perazzi back then. As a relatively new shooter, she won D-Class HOA with a 341.The other D-Class shooter wasn't too happy being beat by a little girl by 19 targets.
As you may know, Kim started out with skeet and changed to trap because the Olympics didn't have ladies skeet that year. Subsequently she won more Olympic medals in trap and skeet. My gut feeling, but I may be wrong, is that she may have used a Perazzi to win all those medals, but not the same gun. I think the reported was confused.

When you also consider the extremely high volume of shooting that she does, that is quite amazing performance from any gun.

Perazzis thrive on high volume -- if you have a gun that works for you, there's no reason to change. Their simple but robust design makes changing the parts subject to wear relatively routine. My old Perazzi Mirage has roughly a quarter million rounds thru it and it's starting to show some wear around the firing pins. Since most of my shooting is with reloads, primer blow-by has enlarged the primer holes in the face of the breach. One solution is to use a standard Perazzi breach repair piece: a dove tail is milled in the breech face, the piece is installed and you're good for another million rounds (or 1/4 million reloads).

[Rembrandt]

Somewhere I have pictures of that shotgun.....Kim put on a shooting exhibition with her father at our club. She would hang upside down shooting skeet with her legs draped over her dads shoulders. Very nice people....hope she gets it back.

Here's one pic I found....

[MrNiceGuy]

if she has $5,000 to offer for a reward, you'd think she'd be storing it in something other than a busted up $500 nissan pickup

[publius]

I doubt they'll get it back, but I've come up w/a punishment. Kim gets a #1 buck for her shotgun and the thief gets to start running at 15 yards.