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Harrisburg Police Chief Tom Carter on Monday displayed two of the 35 guns Harrisburg police have recovered after a home burglary in Allison Hill where thieves stole 50 guns. The gun in the foreground is a .50-caliber. The other is a .357 Magnum.

HARRISBURG- Burglars recently broke into an Allison Hill home, sawed a hole into a homeowner's gun safe and stole up to 50 guns, Harrisburg police confirmed Monday.

The thieves also made off with a large trove of ammunition, police said. Most of the guns were handguns, but some were rifles, including AR-15s, police said.

Nothing else was taken in the burglary, which occurred Oct. 18 in the 2200 block of Greenwood Street.

The burglars used a grinding tool to cut a hole in the side of the safe, which gave them access to the main compartment, police said, but not all compartments, leaving some guns behind.

The guns were legally owned by the homeowner, who immediately reported the crime once he discovered it, police said. Some were collectibles, including a few dating back to the Civil War, police said.

One of the guns was a 50-caliber handgun. Police recovered that and a .357 Magnum revolver Thursday when someone turned them in.

In all, police have recovered about 35 of the stolen guns, many with help from the community, Police Chief Tom Carter said.

Harrisburg's Street Crimes Unit recovered a .22-caliber pistol with a laser sight after they arrested a suspect in a street robbery in front of a chicken restaurant in the early hours of Oct. 25.

Harrisburg's Street Crimes Unit recovered this gun, which was stolen in the burglary, from a suspected robbery after a street holdup Oct. 25.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Pennsylvania State Police are working with city police to track down the remaining 15 or so guns and arrest the thieves.

"We have a lot of good leads," said police Sgt. Gabriel Olivera. "Charges will be coming."

Police are eager to find the remaining guns, some of which are semi-automatic. It's not the kind of firepower police want in the hands of criminals, Carter said. He said the 50-caliber gun they confiscated Thursday could blow a hole through a car engine block.

"It can do a lot of damage," Carter said.

Police did not inform the public about the burglary until Monday because they didn't want to disrupt the investigation, Carter said.

"We didn't want anything to be put out there that would scare people off that we were dealing with so we kept it hush-hush," he said. "We were able to get 35 guns off the street."

UPDATE: This article was updated to add the address and date of the burglary, and the fact that a grinding tool was used to cut the safe.