Douglas County

WATCH: Thieves ram truck into sporting goods store, steal dozens of guns

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga — It took less than one minute for thieves to crash a truck into a sporting goods store and get away with dozens of firearms. It happened Wednesday night at Gable Sporting Goods in Douglasville.

Store owner Rome Smith says the thieves staked out the store before the break-in and committed what looked like a carefully planned heist.

“Surprisingly, it didn’t take that much to get through that block wall with that truck," Smith said.

A half a dozen thieves used a rental box truck as a battering ram to get inside the store. Once inside, they smashed one display case after another, stealing guns.

“They were in and out in about 58 seconds. Pretty coordinated drill that they had going on,” Smith said. “It seemed they knew what they were looking for, that was mainly handguns. That’s what they were looking for cause it’s easier to handle.”

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It took police about four minutes to arrive, but the thieves were long gone with at least 45 handguns and a few long guns, according to the store owner.

“Came in, got all the handguns they could carry, jumped out and hauled tail,” Smith explained.

Smith hopes they are able to use old footage to find the people responsible.

“Hopefully, we can go back and find the guys casing the place. The last time we got broken into, we saw them the week before casing the place out,” Smith said.

Channel 2′s Tom Regan spoke with employee Stacy Sledge, who has real concerns that the stolen weapons will be sold on the streets and used in other crimes.

“They’re selling it to their friends, or gang members, or people on the black market,” Sledge said.

Smith plans to spend thousands of dollars to build iron and concrete posts around the store to keep someone from breaking through the same way again.

The ATF is assisting local police in the effort to track down the thieves and the guns.