In addition, agents are looking at the September theft of more than 40 handguns under similar circumstances. They were stolen from a New York dealer who had just left the valley for the convention center, and parked his vehicle at a restaurant near the King of Prussia Mall.
"Both of the thefts occured in restaurant parking lots after the gun show, leads me to believe we may be looking for the same individuals," said ATF Special Agent John Hageman.
The feds fear all those weapons could be hiting the streets fast, especially the hanguns.
"Those guns could move on the street very quickly, and get in the hands of drug dealers, or other violent criminals," Hageman said. "In the second theft, we had a number of machine guns, silencers, some short-barrled rifles. With that kind of firepower, they'd be looking to move the guns quickly and be able to make a lot of money from violent criminals."
If you can help law enforcement with either of the cases, call 1-800-ATF-GUNS There's a $10,000 reward available for help in solving the machine gun robbery.
