POLK COUNTY, Fla. — Guns Galore has been broken into for the second time in recent weeks, Polk County Sheriff’s Office investigators said.
At least two people busted open the front door and stole at least 46 guns at 4 a.m. Sunday at the store at 2440 U.S. Highway 82 East in Lakeland, deputies said.
There isn’t any surveillance video of the break-in, deputies said. However, surveillance video from a nearby business showed a light-colored sedan turning onto Peachtree Street and parking behind Guns Galore, deputies said. The video captured two people running to the vehicle after the break-in.
"First and foremost, there are at least two dangerous suspects out there who stole nearly 50 handguns and will now use them and traffic them to a bunch of likely violent thugs and criminals who will in turn use these guns to prey on the innocent public to rob, intimidate, hurt and possibly kill,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd in a news release. “We want to find and arrest those responsible for this crime, and we want to recover as many of these guns as possible. Second, retail gun dealers have a moral and ethical obligation to safely secure their firearms inventory from theft. Guns Galore was burglarized before. They broke in with relative ease, as they did again this weekend. Is it too much to ask, Guns Galore, to harden your store and make it a little more difficult for your firearms to be stolen and transferred to the criminal marketplace?”
Anyone with information about the burglaries is asked to call Heartland Crime Stoppers at 1-800-226-TIPS (8377), or log onto www.P3tips.com to submit tips via the web.
Cox Media Group
