CMPD seized a record number of guns last month

So far this year, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department has seized 1,230 guns related to criminal investigations — an 11% increase over the same time last year.

May was the busiest month, with 413 firearms seized, the most in a month going back at least seven years.

CMPD called the seizures “instrumental in preventing violent crime.”

Here are two examples:

• Cops investigating a string of car break-ins across several CMPD divisions arrested a “serial criminal” and seized several guns, the department said in a statement

• In another case, CMPD arrested a 21-year-old man suspected of stealing from 14 cars. When cops went to cuff him, the suspect bolted. Police tracked him to a second location, where they found six stolen guns inside a stolen backpack.

How they caught him: The backpack’s lawful owner told police about a GPS tracking device inside the stolen backpack.