654 guns bound for Bass Pro vanished. Here's how ATF says they found the thieves and 1 gun

This was no smash-and-grab job.

Investigators arrived at a Springfield UPS facility the morning of Oct. 29.

More than 650 guns bound for Bass Pro Shops had just been stolen from several trailers.

All the signs pointed to a crew of people who knew what they were doing, but the crew was nowhere to be found.

More than two months later, five men were charged with federal crimes in connection with the theft. A sixth man was charged last month, court records say.

Court documents show how the men allegedly did it, and how agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used cellphone data to identify them.

Records show it wasn't an easy heist.

More on the case: Texas men charged with stealing 650 guns from Springfield UPS lot

More on the case: Guns stolen from Springfield UPS facility were destined for Bass Pro, ATF says

The trailers with the guns had been parked back-to-back with the roll-up doors facing each other. Two longer trailers were then parked along those trailers to prevent anyone from backing a tractor up to the trailers and pulling them away.

Someone had hot-wired two tractor-trailers in the lot, investigators said, then used them to push and pull trailers around the lot until thieves could access the guns.

All told, feds said the thieves took 600 handguns, 54 shotguns, an entire pallet of Western-style boots, power tools and a dozen cases of soda.

There were several people involved, feds inferred, possibly a crew. Someone had to be the lookout, someone had to hot-wire the trucks, and someone had to drive the moving van or truck needed to move all the merchandise.

A day after the gun theft was reported, documents say a Springfield moving company discovered one of its trucks had been stolen. About a week later, the stolen truck was found in Texas.

UPS corporate security told federal agents there had been several similar heists involving suspects from Texas.

State police in Texas scoured their database and found a 2016 case similar to the gun theft in Springfield.

According to court documents, Eric White, 27, and Derrick White, 32, were arrested in southeast Texas after they were found driving a Penske truck with 135 car tires stolen from a shipping company in 2016.

To pull off the gun heist in Springfield, feds said the thieves probably needed cellphones to coordinate actions and warn each other if somebody was coming.

Texas state police handed over two phone numbers associated with the Whites to federal agents. The agents, armed with a court order, turned to the telecommunications company Sprint.

They asked Sprint for data from phones used in the vicinity of the UPS facility at the time of the theft.

According to court documents, the phone numbers from the Whites were a match, and those numbers were used to track their location.

On Nov. 19, police officers arrested the Whites at the Redneck Heaven Restaurant and Bar in Arlington, documents say.

Derrick White's red Chrysler 300 was parked outside the bar, documents say, and officers found a .380-caliber handgun.

That Beretta pistol was confirmed to be one of the 600 stolen handguns, documents say.

Agents allegedly found two bolt cutters in Eric White's Cadillac sedan.

Both Derrick and Eric White denied ever being in Springfield, documents say, and both said they were unemployed.

According to court documents, Derrick White said he was developing a line of urban apparel and Eric White said he earns money by playing poker.

Court documents say Sprint also turned over phone records associated with three of the other indicted men: Keith Lowe, Frank McChriston and Quinton Haywood.

Investigators said they have additional evidence — including DNA and surveillance footage — that ties the suspects to the gun heist.

A sixth man, Raynord Hunt, was indicted in February after investigators said cellphone data, social media links and surveillance footage linked him to the crime.

Authorities are apparently still searching for the guns.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney of the Western District of Missouri declined to comment on the stolen guns Wednesday.

Court documents say one of the guns has been recovered — the handgun allegedly found Derrick White's car.

It's unclear where the other 653 are.