Good Guy with a Gun #185: Omaha, NE
Keys, wallet, firearm. Garrett Peddicord’s carry routine kept a burglar from stealing high-end jewelry — the fruits of Peddicord’s labor. | Original incident: May 4, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version.
Garrett Peddicord, goldsmith and owner of Sidrony Jewelers, said his gun is one of many tools, but it’s the one tool he hopes never to use. We get the chance to see him use it on surveillance video.
A trained Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan, Peddicord was working on a custom order at around midnight when he heard a rock smashing through his storefront window. He looked at his security system.
“I saw a shadowy figure crawling through the window,” he told WOWT 6.
He had a pistol on him. “I typically carry a firearm on my waist, even after hours,” he told KETV. “It’s just one of those things: keys, wallet, firearm.”
He got up, drew his weapon, and stamped his feet to be heard as he came up front.
Faced with the barrel of a gun, the would-be robber lowered his tool and fled back through where he came.
“A handful of Omaha jewelry owners have been killed at their store, so I didn’t want to be another one of the people added to the list.”
I could go on, but we’re lucky enough to have Peddicord speaking in his own words. Both WOWT and KETV have very good interviews, capturing different information, showing the surveillance video, and talking extensively with Peddicord. Bella Caracta from WOWT (also known as First Alert 6) did the best work, in my opinion.
If you prefer reading, here are the WOWT and KETV articles.
And if you’d like to get to know Garrett and his work a little better, consider reading this article about his custom jewelry at Edge Magazine or watch his interview with the Entrepreneurial Stories Podcast.
Sources
In addition to the links immediately above, we have national coverage from Fox News and the New York Post. (N.B. the Post calls him an Army vet; he appears to be Air Force.)
Specialist media
Southern Jewelry News is a media publication for the Jewelry industry, and gemologist Diana Jarrett wrote an article for them about security and techniques that theives use.
This incident also got coverage in the conservative press from Dave Urbanski at Blaze and AWR Hawkins at Breitbart.
For pure 2A coverage, I see this incident at Colion Noir’s site and in one of the monthly roundups at John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC).