In second break-in, 46 guns stolen from store that also was robbed last month

A Polk County gun store that had been burglarized late last month was broken into again Sunday and nearly 50 firearms stolen, deputies said.

At about 4 a.m., Polk Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to Guns Galore on U.S. Highway 92 East in Lakeland. When they got there, they found the front door lock and glass gun display cases broken.

At least 46 handguns were stolen from the glass cases near the front door, deputies said.

No one was found inside nor were located with K9 units.

The store has no video surveillance.

Investigators searched nearby businesses and looked at surveillance video from those stores. Some of that video shows a light colored sedan turn onto Peachtree Street and park behind the location, where two people are seen running to the vehicle and fleeing the area westbound. Other video in the area also shows two people dressed in dark pants and dark jackets carrying bags and tools.

A dozen firearms were stolen from Guns Galore on Christmas Eve.

"Retail gun dealers have a moral and ethical obligation to safely secure their firearms inventory from theft," Sheriff Grady Judd said. "We know that determined thieves are capable of going to extraordinary lengths to separate hard working people from their hard earned property, and the fundamental responsibility of this theft (and others) lies with the thieves who committed the crime. But there must be a special public safety obligation on the part of gun store owners to harden gun stores from theft."

Anyone with information on this burglary is asked to call Heartland Crime Stoppers at 1-800-226-TIPS.

This story was originally published January 30, 2017 at 3:38 PM with the headline "In second break-in, 46 guns stolen from store that also was robbed last month."