The Great Rifle Robbery: Crooks get 3,400 firearms after stealing transport truck

Police are reporting the theft of 3,400 firearms after a transport truck was stolen in the Peterborough, Ontario area. Rumour has it the firearms were manufactured at the Lakefield plant (Savage Arms' Canadian subsidiary).

Information is still limited, but here's what the Peterborough police had to say:

At approximately 7:30am on February 13, 2022, officers were called to a trucking company on Parkhill Road East after reports a truck carrying more than 2,000 firearms with clips was stolen from the yard.  Through investigation it was determined that the incident happened around 3:00am.  Officers attended the scene and canvassed the area. It’s believed there is no ammunition on the truck.   

Note that these firearms appear to have been en route to a distributor, possibly to Savage Arms headquarters in Massachusetts, as trucks regularly travel from the Lakefield plant to the US. As well, since the firearms appear to have been manufactured by Lakefield (police said they were all small-calibre firearms), these would have been rimfire rifles aimed at the hunting or target-shooting markets. Calibre sent an email to Savage Arms' Canadian subsidiary for confirmation or other details, but we have not received a reply yet. In a call to the Peterborough police department, its media officer was also unable to confirm the origin of the stolen firearms.

Despite competing theories emerging online as to the thieves' motivation, Peterborough police say this does not appear to be a targeted crime. Authorities say the suspects entered several other trucking yards in the city and attempted to steal other tractor-trailers before stealing the rimfire rifles.

Police say the thieves arrived in a four-door sedan with a dark blue paint job. The stolen truck is a 2019 Freightliner New Cascadia 126 with Ontario license plate 938 2PV. The truck is painted white, with company name painted on the doors in red (police are not releasing that name), and #97 painted in red on the hood. The attached trailer is a 2014 Hyundai 53-foot dry freight van with the licence plate V3092A. The trailer is painted white with a metallic silver line painted horizontally the length of the trailer.

Should you have information on the theft, Peterborough police ask you to contact Detective Constable Mike Penney at Peterborough Police at 705-876-1122, extension 232, or else contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at www.stopcrimehere.ca. 

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