URBANA, Ill. (WAND) – Police said a man broke into a store through a ceiling in search of guns to steal.
Officers said 29-year-old Justin W. Johnson is the person responsible. Police reports described him entering a locked gun storage room at 1 a.m. on Aug. 1 at the Champaign Rural King, located at 913 W. Marketview Drive, according to The News-Gazette.
He took more than one box from the store, police said. They said the boxes had six different types of handguns in them.
After managers identified Johnson, who stocks shelves at Rural King from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., as the suspect, police arrived following one of his shifts and approached him near his car. Police reports said a tracking dog reacted to the car, and a search revealed a backpack with cannabis in it, a credit card with his name on it and a manual for a stolen gun.
The guns are still missing Friday, police told the newspaper.
Johnson faces four charges, which include counts of aggravated possession of stolen firearms (Class 1 felony), burglary (Class 2 felony) and unlawful use of weapons (Class 3 felonies). Authorities set his bail at $250,000.
He has two past theft and retail theft convictions in Cook County.
According to the newspaper, the same Rural King store and a Rantoul Rural King were targets of burglars in November 2018. They did not steal anything from Champaign, but took two long guns from the other store. One adult and two teens are behind bars for those crimes.
Burglars also broke into the Champaign Rural King six years ago, broke cases and took 24 handguns and a rifle in two burglaries within a one-week span. Those crimes happened in from late August to early September, The News-Gazette said, and the stolen guns surfaced in later crimes in the area.
