Local News

A man who cut a hole through the back wall of the Pickers Paradise pawn shop in Medford and stole 16 guns and other goods worth about $40,000 was sentenced last week to five years of federal probation.

The Oregonian reports US District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai issued the sentence to 40-year-old Gregory Allen Berry, noting that Berry also faces three years in state prison for a burglary spree that began less than a week before the pawn shop break-in and continued months later.

Police responded to Pickers Paradise on South Pacific Highway on February 5, 2023, after someone had broken into the store overnight and stole 14 rifles and two shotguns, according to police and prosecutors. Berry had removed a fence and then cut a hole through the back wall of the shop to enter sometime between 10 p.m. and 9 a.m.. He took off with the stolen guns, drove to a campsite and buried the guns in a hole. He then returned to the pawn shop to steal $40,000 worth of gaming systems, coins, jewelry, and sports cards.

After his arrest on February 29, 2024, Berry said he had intentionally targeted the pawn store because he was angry with the business "over the price of something" during a prior transaction he had there. He was high on fentanyl at the time of the burglary and subsequently traded two of the guns for more fentanyl, Berry told investigators. Most of the guns have not been recovered.

Berry pleaded guilty in November to theft of firearms from a federal firearms licensee. Assistant Federal Public Defender Brian C. Butler sought probation for Berry, noting he will be in prison under a plea deal in his state burglary case.

Berry was sentenced Friday morning in Jackson County Circuit Court in that case after pleading guilty to burglarizing a bicycle shop in Talent in January 2023, burglarizing a Chinese restaurant and gas station convenience store in Medford in July 2023 and attempting to burglarize a glass smoke shop in Medford in July 2023.