My uncle died of a heart attack. He was a gun collector. After a phone call from a distant family member to the Chicago police asking to check on his wellbeing, they went to his house and broke in to discover his body. So it made a certain amount of sense that they confiscated his guns for safekeeping.
We found 130-some gun licenses. Two of his neighbors told us that the police loaded up several squad car trunks with guns – one neighbor was sure it was 9 trunk loads.
It happens with alarming frequency. I have read countless stories on THR where people have had to fight the bureaucracy to get their guns back from LE. And in a lot of cases, they find out (or highly suspect) they were stolen by LEOs.
Heck, it even happened to the father of a friend of mine:
A buddy of mine lives in Washington State. His 76 year old father lives in Illinois. His father has around 40 guns, including 16 Winchester rifles, each in mint condition and each in a different caliber.
Five years ago his father was going through a divorce. He wanted to get the guns out of the house until the divorce was settled. So he called the local sheriff’s office and asked if they could store his guns for a while. They said “Sure.” A couple deputies came over and took all the guns.
The divorce took two years to become finalized. Afterwards, his father went to the sheriff’s office and asked for his guns to be returned. They said, “Oh, we’re terribly sorry. Your guns were destroyed. That’s our policy. Have a nice day.” :mad:
He was pretty bummed, and you can imagine. But for whatever reason he didn’t do anything about it.
A couple years later my buddy visited his father in Illinois. Over dinner one night my friend said to his father, “Hey Dad, it’s going to be nice weather tomorrow. Let’s grab a few rifles and go plinking.” His dad got a sad look on his face and told him the story.
My friend was irate. :mad: The next day he went to the sheriff’s office and asked them what the hell was going on. They repeated the same line they told his father: “We’re terribly sorry, but his guns were destroyed. That’s our policy. Have a nice day.”
He suspected they weren’t destroyed. I mean, how could someone destroy a mint-condition Winchester rifle?
So he got an attorney. And the attorney sent them a letter.
Come to find out, the guns weren’t destroyed at all. They were residing in guns safes in the homes of half a dozen LEOs. :mad: :mad: :mad:
Sorry that was not meant to be a driveby post. My internet connection took a big dump and I haven’t been able to get online for more than a day.
I know police officers are one of the few groups that can be attacked regularly on this board. Most of the time I don’t say anything, I just let people vent. Every once and a while I feel the need to say something.
Spewed a bunch of crap as in: “it likely means one of the LEOs stole it.” Your “any cop will tell you” comment is a bunch of crap too. I don’t have to ask one, I am one. I know no such thing. In fact I know just the opposite. Spew a bunch of crap like “file a theft report”. It happened 2 to 3 years ago. Ever hear of a statute of limitations? No one will even listen to a claim of a “theft” from three years ago no matter who is supposed to be the suspect.
For one thing it is at best unclaimed property. If it wasn’t a firearm it would probably been auctioned off by now. That is not a theft. For firearms most departments destroy and don’t auction. Again that is not a theft. As proof of widespread theft we have a couple of anecdotes and a link to a message board I have never heard of. I have a couple of anecdotes too.
I happened to be in the station one night when an old lady came in. One of the guys I work with went out to see what she needed. She had a bag of guns that belonged to her recently deceased husband. My buddy is a bit of a gun nut and recognized them as pretty valuable. Knowing the fate of the weapons if we took them in, he explained to the lady what she had. He then called her son in law and explained the situation to her. He gave the son in law some advice as to where he might go to get a good deal.
Second one. One of my bosses has a buddy. This guys family owned a company that used to make M1 cabines for the government. This guy handed over 4 mint condition carbines to my boss because they violated NJs ridiculous assault weapon ban. The four weapons were serial numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5 (it was explained to me that there were several serial #1s, gifts to politicians when they were made) The only rounds through these weapons were the factory test fire. I got to fondle one for a while but in the end it went into the grinder.
Do my anecdotes have more weight? No FOAF here.
That is exactly what happens. I have seen museum grade weapons get destroyed.
There is no doubt that there are instances where police officers have broken the law. To make it seem like it is the norm is just plain wrong. Let me put it to you this way. Leaving out my morals and ethics. You think I am going to risk my six figure job and pension to steal a $200 or $300 gun? Would you?
Yeah, me too, on both counts. Been in law enforcement 25+ years in three different municipalities.
I’ve learned, though, that when some claim is challenged on these boards, someone will inevitably come up with a factual cite for almost anything.
Whenever I hear about crooked shit that happens on some police force I always thank my lucky stars that kind of stuff isn’t happening on the department I’ve been on for the last 16 years.
