National Guard officials order weapons audit after military guns stolen from armory

LANCASTER COUNTY, S.C. — Three people are accused of possessing powerful machine guns, a grenade launcher and night vision goggles that were stolen from a National Guard vault on Nichols Road in Lancaster County.

Investigators said officials at the National Guard Armory didn't know the weapons were stolen until they were told by police.

A National Guard spokesman told Channel 9 that, after the incident, the armory ordered an audit for all weapons at National Guard Armories across the state.

The arrests stemmed from a simple traffic stop.

Investigators said one of the suspects left food on top of the car that landed on the highway, which led to the traffic stop, according to court documents.

Kimberly Cannon, 39; Brandon Polston, 32; and Austin Ritter, 23; all from Lancaster, are facing federal weapons charges.

Investigators initially stopped Cannon -- who had Polston and Ritter in her vehicle -- last month when they found out she had a wrong tag, no insurance and an open container of beer.

An officer then saw a gun inside the vehicle, investigators said. A further search revealed that there were more weapons, including machine guns and military gear, in the vehicle, investigators said.

Some of those items showed markings that indicated they belonged to the South Carolina National Guard Armory.

When police contacted the National Guard in Lancaster County, its staff had no idea the weapons were gone, but several doors, including the door to the weapons vault, were unlocked.

Investigators said six guns are still missing from the armory.

Channel 9 asked National Guard officials about the protocol for storing weapons, but a spokesman said they couldn’t comment on their security plan.

The spokesman did say that, after the theft, one of the generals did a weapons sweep of all armories across the state, down to the serial number, and that every other weapon was accounted for.

Authorities have not released information about how the trio obtained the gear.

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