Police in Thomasville, Georgia, are on the hunt for a suspect who was caught on surveillance tape stealing multiple guns from a local business during Hurricane Helene on Saturday.
The unidentified individual was seen on security footage breaking into cases, going behind counters, and taking multiple guns.
The Thomasville Police Department posted the video of the surveillance footage on Saturday and alleged that the individual burglarized the business while the citizens of Thomasville were taking cover.
The authorities are offering a reward for information about this individual that could lead to their arrest.
The police department said people can report information about this individual on their CrimeWatch page on the tip tab.
A gun shop in Culver City, California, photographed on March 23, 2021. Police in Georgia allege that an individual burglarized a store in Georgia and stole multiple guns as Hurricane Helene making landfall in the state.
Ringo Chiu/Associated Press
Newsweek reached out to the Thomasville Police Department for comment via a form on their website.
They did not specify the name or location of the business, nor any information about the individual they could ascertain from the video.
Hurricane Helene, a powerful category 4 storm that hit Florida on September 26, has left nearly 100 people dead and caused more than one million Americans to lose power.
With flash flooding, strong winds, landslides, and isolated tornadoes, Hurricane Helene has been described as “one of the worst storms in modern history for parts of North Carolina” by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, according to CNN.
The storm has also ripped through several other states across the Southeastern US since Florida, including South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, and West Virginia throughout this weekend and into this week.
Hurricane Helene made landfall in Georgia on Friday, September 27 and has resulted in 787,428 power outages throughout the state.
Governor Brian Kemp reported 15 storm-related deaths in the state, according to the New York Times.
The category 4 hurricane has destroyed homes, roads, vehicles, property, and more across the six states directly affected.
According to Ammo.com, between 2017 and 2021 there were reportedly 1,074,022 guns reported stolen in the U.S., with roughly 200,000 stolen per year.
The nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety reports that the most common place guns are stolen from is cars.
It cites that FBI data states that a gun is stolen from a car every nine minutes in the U.S., and the rate at which guns are being stolen from cars is rising.
Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.