Local Gun Store Theft Involved Weapons Of War

A trailer full of the most powerful firearms on the market stolen from a west side gun store on Rockville Road over the weekend showed up on the opposite side of town in a neighborhood near the state fairgrounds on Ralston Avenue empty. Profire Arms and Supply had loaded the trailer on Friday with 29 high-powered firearms worth about $225,000 and 20,000 rounds of ammunition for use at a weekend event. Those firearms included M-16s, AK-47s, an Uzi, shotgun and several handguns. Even more troubling was the silencers with which the firearms were equipped. Fox 59's Russ McQuaid offers these additional details:

Fox59 has learned that the guns were being stored in the trailer Friday night in preparation for a Saturday “swap meet” event at Parabellum Firing Range, about five miles down Rockville Road in Avon.

“We couldn’t believe it,” said Tom Sellmer, owner of Parabellum Firing Rage. “That’s like your worst nightmare for something like that to happen.”

Sellmer doesn’t have any theories on who stole the the trailer. But he thinks it must have been someone who either saw Profire employees loading the trailer up on Friday. Or, perhaps somebody who knew Profire would be storing and transporting weapons to the firing range the next day.

Whoever it was, Sellmer says, they came prepared.

“It (the trailer) was pretty secure,” Sellmer said. “It was not a standard trailer hitch. It wasn’t going to be an easy one for people to grab.”

It looks like an inside job to me. Good luck finding the weapons. I've not heard any reports indicating that police have recovered the large cache of firearms stolen during a break-in of another gun store not far from Profire on Crawfordsville Road. Simeon Adams, the teen felon who shot and killed Nathan Trapuzzano, was thought to be a suspect in that gun store robbery. The ATF is offering a $5,000 reward, which is being matched by a $10,000 reward offered by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, for information about the stolen guns.

UPDATE: Fox 59 News is reporting that some of the guns have been recovered from the home of a convicted felon who allegedly had no connection to the original theft of the firearms. The unidentified homeowner has been arrested on unrelated charges.