It took a Mercer County man four years to find some knives, and only minutes for burglars to take off with most a rare collection of knives.

C.A. Shelley is a well known collector of rare, one-of-a-kind knives. We're told Shelley stores the collectibles in his Mercer County home.

In his home is where two showcases, plus three folders and a glass showcase are now missing. Shelley tells us they were full of priceless and rare knives; not something that your going to find at a flea market.

Some of the rare knives date back to the 1800's.

None of the knives were valued under a hundred dollars, some of them in the thousands.

Police say the suspects entered into the home through a metal window. Police say they ripped out the A.C. unit from the outside then worked their way through a tight, one-and-a-half by two-foot space with a security bar across the middle.

Because of the large sum of goods stolen, Harrodsburg police, the Mercer County sheriff and Kentucky State Police are investigating this bizarre break-in.