The theft of over $100,000 in firearms from a trailer traveling to a gun show in March now has law enforcement officials offering a reward for information related to the incident, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced Thursday.

Eric Vasquez, 42, of Colorado Springs was arrested April 1 on suspicion of committing the theft, but “nearly all” of the 138 stolen guns remain missing, Colorado Springs police Lt. Bradley Pratt told The Gazette.

“The fact that there were 138 firearms was just literally dumb luck,” Pratt said.

He believes the crime is the largest gun theft investigated by CSPD. It has surpassed the most recent large firearm theft that Pratt could recall, when 90 guns were stolen and recovered in eastern El Paso County around 2010.

The ATF, Colorado Springs police and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry trade association, are offering a $5,000 reward for evidence or information related to the incident.

The owner of the trailer is a federally licensed firearm dealer and was transporting several totes with semi-automatic handguns, pistols, revolvers and rifles to a gun show to sell.

Police believe Vasquez planned to drive a U-Haul van to the Hampton Inn by Hilton near the Colorado Springs Airport and break into a secured trailer, but he happened to find one with firearms in it.

Around 7 a.m. on March 27, the trailer’s owner and his daughter noticed the burglary in progress and ran to the parking lot before calling police. There, the daughter fired shots toward the van as Vasquez allegedly drove away, according to his arrest affidavit.

Detectives then used some of the department’s 90 automated license plate reader cameras across the city to track the van’s location history, which showed Vasquez allegedly “casing” the area the night before.

A search warrant executed with U-Haul unveiled the renter of the van used in the alleged theft was the father of Vasquez’s girlfriend.

Several days later, police surveilled Vasquez walking away from his house and getting picked up before going to the U-Haul van parked “in the area,” according to the affidavit. After driving back to his residence in the van, he left sometime later and fled from police who attempted to perform a traffic stop with a vehicle grappler.

Then, CSPD received an emergency call reporting a hit-and-run crash along South Nevada Avenue, after he allegedly drove through an entry gate to a parking garage. Court documents show another vehicle picked him up and he was not located.

Detectives searched the van left in the garage and found empty tote boxes belonging to the victim.

On April 1, police arrested Vasquez at a residence he is known to frequent, where he was also arrested on March 15, and apprehended him after he briefly barricaded himself. He was taken into custody in the gun theft case and on warrants in several other criminal cases.

Vasquez denied all involvement to police, who believe the guns may possibly be hidden somewhere.

Colorado court records show he has been charged in seven other criminal cases since December in El Paso and Douglas counties.

He is charged with theft, among other charges, in six of those cases. Vasquez does not appear to have any publicly available criminal history from 2013 until December 2025.

“These prolific repeat offenders are the ones that are responsible for the vast majority of crimes that we investigate,” Pratt said. “The idea is, if we can hold these prolific repeat offenders accountable, it can have a dramatic, positive effect on the crime rate.”

In this case, Vasquez faces one count of theft from $100,000 to $1 million. He is slated to appear for his arraignment in an El Paso County courtroom on July 13.

Jail records show Vasquez has not posted his $100,000 bond in the case. He has also yet to post over $200,000 in bonds across the numerous other cases he is being held on.

Anyone who wants to reach out can call the ATF at 1-888-283-8477 or CSPD at 719-444-7000. Tips can also be provided to the ATF on the agency’s website or ATFTips@atf.gov.

“To date, nothing has come to fruition with regard to those investigative efforts, which is why we’re at a point that we’re asking the public if anybody has information,” Pratt said of attempts to recover the firearms. “No information is too big or too small.”