Cabela's Reports Major Theft of Guns from Store's Storage Site

Federal agents are investigating the disappearance of 76 firearms from a storage site being used by Cabela's, the outdoors superstore set to open in Fort Worth this month.

Cabela's officials reported the missing rifles, shotguns and handguns to Fort Worth police on Saturday, said Tom Crowley, special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The guns are valued at more than $100,000, he said.

"We're trying to determine what happened to them," Crowley said. "We're concerned because, obviously, they could fall into the hands of criminals."

Cabela's spokesman David Draper confirmed that guns are missing but said he couldn't comment further because of the criminal investigation.

The sporting-goods retailer plans to open its 230,000-square-foot store at Interstate 35W and Texas 170 on May 26.

According to a police report, Cabela's workers realized that some guns were missing as they moved them from storage to the new store.

They notified police and took officers back to the climate-controlled facility where about 1,200 guns were stored.

Officers saw no signs that the padlock had been broken, though one noted in the report that "there is an open space between the ceiling and the door where a slim person could fit through."

The missing guns had been left on top of two fiberglass bunkers that contained the most expensive weapons, the report stated. The bunkers were locked and had not been opened.

A security camera was pointed at the ground, not the storage sheds.

The weapons could have been missing for as long as two weeks before Saturday, Crowley said. Investigators are conducting interviews and "looking into whether this was a burglary," he said.

The ATF is notified anytime weapons are reported stolen from a federal firearms licensee such as Cabela's, Crowley said. Rarely are the thefts on this scale, he said.

"This is unusual as far as the amount missing from a particular location," Crowley said.

Cabela's, from Sidney, Neb., has turned its $1 billion-a-year mail-order business into a burgeoning retail chain with 10 stores and eight more on the way.

Company officials have said they expect the new store to draw more than 4 million visitors a year, making it the No. 1 tourist attraction in Texas.

The Fort Worth store will include a boat showroom, a trophy-deer museum, a gun library and a 40-foot replica of a mountain.

The City Council set up a special tax district in April that will issue $30 million in bonds to pay for roads, utilities, a museum and other improvements inside the store.