Two Beaufort County men have been arrested and charged with larceny of firearms.

According to press release from the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office, Cameron Campbell, 21, of 212 Magnolia Drive, Washington, and Vince Hodges, 28, of 5105 Slatestone Road, Washington, have charged for a May 13 break-in at the home Cameron Campbell’s uncle, Howard Campbell.

At around 6:30 p.m. on that date, Howard Campbell, 55, returned to his home on Heber Road, Greenville, to find that someone had broken into his detached garage and broken open a gun safe, the release said. Howard Campbell’s tools, located in the garage, had been used to open the safe and the twenty firearms, including rifles, shotguns and assault weapons, along with over 10,000 rounds of ammunition it contained, were missing.

Before Howard Campbell discovered the theft, some of the weapons had already been sold, the release said.

Pitt County Sheriff’s Office investigators, with assistance from their Beaufort County counterparts, recovered one of those weapons during the course of another investigation. While many of the weapons and ammunition have been located, several handguns have not been recovered, said the release.

Beaufort County investigators continue to work with Pitt County officials in the ongoing investigation, said Maj. Kenneth Watson, spokesman for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

Law enforcement advises gun owners to keep firearms in a gun safe, however, not all gun safes are equally theft proof.

“I can only say that we have seen various degrees of difficulty in entering gun safes in prior cases,” Watson said. “Typically they’re steel cabinets, as opposed to an actual safe, some with a single layer of metal only. We’ve had many cases where those have been defeated by pry tools that are easily available in homes and garages.”

Cameron Campbell has been detained in the Pitt County Detention Center under a $130,000 secured bond. Hodges is being held at the Beaufort County Detention Center.