# I found a gun **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 2, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964 "2013-06-02T19:02:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/21 "2013-06-03T17:56:39Z")
> [@cougar58](#): > > A perp would want to rid themselves of the magazine and bullets that could tie them to the gun used, not just the gun. Yes. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/22 "2013-06-03T18:54:12Z")
> [@cougar58](#): > > A perp would want to rid themselves of the magazine and bullets that could tie them to the gun used, not just the gun. And stashing it in a hotel room (likely paid for with cash - so no records) where the police can not enter, is far better than tossing it in a creek or field, where a K-9 or scuba diver would find it. Right… And by your very own logic, since this gun was stored with multiple magazines, your theory that it was used in a crime doesn’t hold water. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/23 "2013-06-03T19:05:14Z")
It could’ve been someone who travels with a gun for protection. They put it away because only dummies keep guns in plain sight, then forgot it. I know that’s not _nearly_ as dramatic as cougar58’s scenario, but it’s much more likely. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/24 "2013-06-03T19:16:52Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Right… And by your very own logic, since this gun was stored with multiple magazines, your theory that it was used in a crime doesn’t hold water. I don’t understand. If someone ditched the gun, they would want to ditch the magazines, too. The cops would not find a gun on me, but they’d want to know why I was carrying the mags around. ---
**Author:** ![cougar58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cougar58](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cougar58)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/25 "2013-06-03T19:39:25Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Right… And by your very own logic, since this gun was stored with multiple magazines, your theory that it was used in a crime doesn’t hold water. err, how does having multiple magazines in your pocket, eliminate a suspect as a criminal? I just cited several famous murders where the perp had multiple magazines. I know many people who travel with more than one magazine. I can easily store 2 magazines that hold (30) rounds of 30 caliber M1 carbine, in one pocket. Many, many criminals carry multiple magazines. have you already forgotten the LA bank robbers, who held off the entire LAPD because they had multiple magazines (long and short guns) as well as BP vests? One ended up shooting himself in the head with a handgun that had used several magazines during that shootout. Had they gotten away, they absolutely would have ditched the guns and the magazines. I have an unreg Czech gun with a magazine, and I have been searching for years for a spare magazines. Its very unique to that model. If I were a criminal and tagged someone with it, I absolutely would want to ditch the gun and the magazines. Hello? ---
**Author:** ![cougar58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cougar58](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cougar58)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/26 "2013-06-03T19:42:29Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I don’t understand. If someone ditched the gun, they would want to ditch the magazines, too. > The cops would not find a gun on me, but they’d want to know why I was carrying the mags around. exactly but give him till 6pm to respond (rumor has it, people with that level of logic, take 2 hours to watch 60 Minutes on CBS) I think some of the Dopers think Magazines are like socks at K-Mart - one size fits all. Amazing ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/27 "2013-06-03T19:57:20Z")
> [@cougar58](#): > > A perp would want to rid themselves of the magazine and bullets that could tie them to the gun used, not just the gun. And stashing it in a hotel room (likely paid for with cash - so no records) where the police can not enter, is far better than tossing it in a creek or field, where a K-9 or scuba diver would find it. A public hotel room is a better location than the infinite number of remote, inaccessable places in nature to hide a hot weapon? > [@](#): > > There was a case recently, where a murderer hid a dead body under the hotel bed, and one of the next patrons complained to the staff that his room had a foul smell. They searched his room each day, and told him they found nothing. Eventually, the stench was so bad, they did look under the bed, in the wooden , walled in box frame, and there was a dead body. I can’t imagine what point you’re trying to make here. It’s not like they killed someone elsewhere and then snuck the corpse into a motel for safekeeping. A body, unlike a gun, is kinda difficult to move without being seen. That’s why there’s a _concealed_ weapon license, remember? > [@](#): > > The point is, a hotel room is an ideal place to conceal a gun used in a crime . And it is not an ideal place for a law abiding person to stash a gun. Esp in a TV stand. No, it’s not. **Son of a Rich** found it almost immediately. The overwhelming odds are someone put it out of sight, perhaps from the maid, and accidentally forgot it there. It wasn’t planted there as the best hiding place available after being used in a murder. That’s ludicrous. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/28 "2013-06-03T20:23:19Z")
I would have called the police. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2013, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/29 "2013-06-03T21:17:06Z")
> [@cougar58](#): > > exactly > but give him till 6pm to respond (rumor has it, people with that level of logic, take 2 hours to watch 60 Minutes on CBS) > > I think some of the Dopers think Magazines are like socks at K-Mart - one size fits all. > > Amazing Sorry, I posted this right about the time I ran out of shits to give on the subject. I think I misread something cougartown had written about it though, something about how they’d want to ditch the magazines away from the gun - and since the gun was found w/ them it would mean that it wasn’t used in a crime. At least I think that’s how I’d read it when I posted. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/30 "2013-06-04T00:27:02Z")
Well, I am paranoid and not consistently morally upstanding so I would have wiped it and anything I touched in and around the speaker, put it back, and pretended I’d never seen it. My instant assumption would be that it had been used in a crime, and as much as I’d love to help catch the perpetrator, I’d be worried first of all about retribution for being a witness/rat and second of all about the police mistakenly implicating me and not believing a story about “just finding it here.” ---
**Author:** ![cougar58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cougar58](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cougar58)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/31 "2013-06-04T04:25:24Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > A public hotel room is a better location than the infinite number of remote, inaccessable places in nature to hide a hot weapon? > > I can’t imagine what point you’re trying to make here. It’s not like they killed someone elsewhere and then snuck the corpse into a motel for safekeeping. A body, unlike a gun, is kinda difficult to move without being seen. That’s why there’s a _concealed_ weapon license, remember? > No, it’s not. **Son of a Rich** found it almost immediately. The overwhelming odds are someone put it out of sight, perhaps from the maid, and accidentally forgot it there. It wasn’t planted there as the best hiding place available after being used in a murder. That’s ludicrous. What, in the OP, makes you fathom that "Son of a Rich found it IMMEDIATELY? Nothing does. In fact, it could have been there a decade or two. Ludicrous is as ludicrous does. If the OP doesn’t square up with your theory, just rewrite it. Ps a law abiding Ccw holder would notice it missing within 24 hrs, and would have asked the front desk to let them access the room. If it was a law abiding ccw, why would they ccw it with them at all times? Regarding the body hidden under the hotel bed, I say the murder occurred elsewhere. Shooting, stabbing, or fighting would have left blood splatters and pools in the room. Cops use a litmus test and black light to find blood born evidence. There would be none if the body was wrapped and walked in via the parking lot door entrance. Also, leaving the gun in a remote location in nature, as you say, would leave one set of footprints and tire tracks - the perps. Hiding it in a hotel, assures that 365 new foot prints and thousands of tire tracks and DNA evidence are mixed in over a year. ---
**Author:** ![cougar58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cougar58](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cougar58)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/32 "2013-06-04T04:40:59Z")
Btw, snopes confirms a dozen dead bodies hidden Under hotel beds, some undetected and / or undiscovered for weeks. > **[The Body Under the Bed](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-bawdy-under-the-bed/)** > > A vacationing couple staying in a foul-smelling motel room later discover a body hidden under their bed. If the underside of hotel beds are such a good place to stash Aunt Edna, I postulate that a TV stand would be even more logical for a criminal to stash a Glock. If Edna and others can go undetected for weeks, a .44 should stay undiscovered for years, just on the stench factor alone. ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/33 "2013-06-04T04:43:21Z")
I would have called the police, too. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/34 "2013-06-04T05:28:02Z")
> [@cougar58](#): > > What, in the OP, makes you fathom that "Son of a Rich found it IMMEDIATELY? > > Nothing does. In fact, it could have been there a decade or two. > > Ludicrous is as ludicrous does. If the OP doesn’t square up with your theory, just rewrite it. FWIW, I found the gun within a couple of hours of checking in. Of course, I have no way of knowing how long it was there prior to my checking in. In an alternate universe, a small child found the gun and killed his sibling. It could have been this universe if not for me. What a stupid place to leave a gun. ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/35 "2013-06-04T08:00:12Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Finders-Keepers? This isn’t the jungle. In a civilized society, you ought to make a good-faith effort to get valuable property back to its owner. Guns in particular are registered, and so turning it over to the police would have probably allowed them to get the gun back to its rightful owner. I agree that “Finders Keepers” isn’t an ethical position, but in the United States most guns are not “registered.” Most localities don’t even have a mechanism to do so voluntarily. It is largely a plot mechanism for bad procedural shows and nothing more. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/36 "2013-06-04T12:33:00Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > FWIW, I found the gun within a couple of hours of checking in. Of course, I have no way of knowing how long it was there prior to my checking in. > > In an alternate universe, a small child found the gun and killed his sibling. It could have been this universe if not for me. What a stupid place to leave a gun. As opposed to in a duffle bag that got stolen off your bike? ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/37 "2013-06-04T12:54:16Z")
If a criminal wants to dispose of a weapon used in a crime, why not just toss it in a trash can? There are public trash cans at mini-marts, fast-food restaurants, etc. I think that would be better than leaving it hidden in a motel room where you were presumably registered, making it easier to be traced back to you. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/38 "2013-06-04T13:07:39Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > If a criminal wants to dispose of a weapon used in a crime, why not just toss it in a trash can? There are public trash cans at mini-marts, fast-food restaurants, etc. > > I think that would be better than leaving it hidden in a motel room where you were presumably registered, making it easier to be traced back to you. In my far fetched scenario, he had to get rid of it quickly and feared he was being watched. 🙂 Or perhaps he intended to recover it later, as they hid a gun in a toilet in _The Godfather_. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/39 "2013-06-04T13:27:11Z")
> [@cougar58](#): > > Btw, snopes confirms a dozen dead bodies hidden Under hotel beds, some undetected and / or undiscovered for weeks. > > [The Body Under the Bed | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/bodybed.asp). I read that before posting. Perhaps you should have too. \*In Rosedale, Maryland in 1987, an unidentified man \*\*died of a drug overdose after one of the thirty-four balloons of heroin he’d swallowed burst. His partner stashed the corpse under their motel bed, then split. \*\*Three days later, the family the room was next rented to complained about the odor, and this led to the body’s discovery. One of the oldest “smelly body left under the bed” sightings comes from 1982. Richard Kuklinski, Daniel Deppner, and Gary Smith often teamed together to run auto theft scams. Kuklinski and Deppner decided to kill Smith, and they accomplished this by **feeding him a cyanide-laced hamburger in a North Bergen, New Jersey, motel room. Kuklinkski finished off Smith by strangling him when watching Smith die of poisoning proved tiresome.** Smith’s body was stuffed under the bed and left there. It was found four days later, on 27 December 1982. During the intervening four days, the room had been rented to others each night. Guests had wrinkled their noses at the smell, but none thought to look under the bed. That case has seemingly been topped by one in which Sony Millbrook of Memphis, Tennessee, was reported missing on 27 January 2010 after she failed to pick up her children from school. Forty-seven days later, on 15 March 2010, homicide investigators were called to **the room of a Budget Inn motel where Millbrook had been living** just prior to her disappearance, her body having just been discovered inside the frame of the bed there — even though the room had reportedly been cleaned and rented several times since her disappearance almost seven weeks earlier. \* It blows my mind someone would think carrying dead bodies into hotels through a parking lot is a discreet, prudent way to avoid detection. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2013, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964/40 "2013-06-04T13:30:23Z")
There is no way to know who owned the gun, or why it was in the room. We do know that it was not the property of the OP and that by stealing it and then allowing it to be stolen from him, he was able to make sure that criminals got their hands on a gun. Well done. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-found-a-gun/659964.md?page=3)