Man finds state trooper's assault rifle, ammo in road

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Hello, officer. I found one of your LE-only rifles here on the side of the road. I figured that, since only LEO's can be trusted w/ these "high-powered" rifles, I just wanted to get it back to you as soon as I could.

Hi-cap magazines? No, sir. I didn't find any hi-cap magazines w/ it. Guess they were stored separately--like y'all advise us "civilians" to do. No, sir. I wouldn't have any hi-cap magazines. Well, I'd figure that only LEO's could be trusted w/ them--kinda like the "high-powered rifle" thing. If someone else got them, how much do you think they could get for them? That much, huh? Well, I'll keep a look-out though.

Well, I'd better get on the road. I'm going to do some trading, and I think I'll get some good deals today. BTW, do you know where a fellow could get a cheap Dremmel tool & some Gun-Blue? I just have a few things to touch up before I get there...:D
 
The laptop computer was at fault?

Damn. Yet another security flaw brought to you courtesy of Microsoft Windows!

Seriously, it sounds like an honest accident to me. Many people have done far more silly things, myself included. What I found offensive was the usual insinuation that "most people" would have gone off and done something bad with the rifle once they found it.

BS. "Most people" would've done exactly what the man who found it did - call the police.

Me? Assuming I hadn't run over the darn bag, I would've called the cops too. Had I not seen the bag and thus run it over with my car, I would likely have tossed the bag into the nearest, deepest puddle in a fit of anger. Upon hearing the metallic rattling inside, I may have fished it out of the puddle to have a look.

Then again, I may have left it there in the puddle, ignorant of what was inside.

I've hit car jacks that idiots have left in the middle of the road and tend to get irritable about road debris. :)
 
Hmmm...what would YOU do if you found a gun laying in the middle of nowhere?

All joking aside about finders keepers, you should really turn the damn thing in.

How do you know it wasn't a murder weapon? Turning the gun in might help convict the bad guy. Or help convict you of a crime you didn't commit!

To me the potential gain is not worth the potential problems.
 
My crown vic isn't a stadank special, but the trunk release button is behind the glove box lid. Is that not standard location for them? Are the glove box lids removed ? Are the laptops inside the glove box?
Click to expand...
Well, prior to installing the fancy-schmanzy permanently mounted in-car touch screen computers (which are now working more often than they are not, excitement!), the trunk release button was to be found dead-center on the dash board, between the radio and the AC controls. I'm not sure if that is where it comes in the original package, or if that is a feature that is added by Division of Communications when they install the electronics in the cars. That would made sense, as when you need something out of the trunk (like, say, your long gun), you sometimes need it pretty quickly. This, incidentally, is right about level with most of the swivel mounts that I have seen for other agencies laptops.

Now that we have the aforementioned computers, our trunk release buttons have been moved to the driver's side of a custom-installed between-the-seats console. The previous location would be dead-center behind the computer screen. Inconvenient, at best.

As I said, it would depend on how the gear was laid out in the cruiser. It is not at all implausible to me, especially knowing how lame some of the layouts can be. Our Caprices, for instance, have a problem with clipboards sliding on the between-the-seats consoles and pushing buttons on the radio. If something as obvious as that eludes the layout team, I can see a laptop mount being just as troublesome. Couple that with a AR in an unsecured case, sitting atop some sort of trunk organizer (a very common setup...you NEED a trunk organizer, and you NEED your rifle on top of everything else), yeah, I can see it going down just as reported.

Mike

PS Again, moral? Long guns stored in cars need a rack. Period.
 
Well being from La, and knowing where this happend a big bump in the road could launch this out of the trunk, and it not being a lie. Couple that with Coronach's tale, and personal experience with cluttered trunks of crusiers I can see this happening...maybe. But it is probably more likely a case of a tropper forgeting that he put his long gun on the roof of the car or the lid of the trunk. And I would definetly not keep this rifle for myself (I keep telling this to myself :evil: ). And no there are no safe storage laws in La. to answer another question. You can keep a loaded weapon pretty much anywhere in your car here. Your car is considered an extension of your home by state law, so you can have a gun anywhere you like.
 
Yeah, I agree that negligence is also quite possible. God knows I've left enough Saunders clipboards atop cruisers...

Mike
 
Yeah, I agree that negligence is also quite possible. God knows I've left enough Saunders clipboards atop cruisers...
Click to expand...

At least your troops don't leave sunflower seeds on the floor :D :D :D!!!

I always wondered about those trunk releases. It shows a picture of a guy jumping out.

1) do they think a cop is going to stuff some BG in the trunk?
2) do criminals drive crown vics and stuff victims in the trunk?
3) if anyone DID stuff someone in the trunk, wouldn't they just cut that silly thing off?
 
The internal trunk releases are a pretty intelligent safety feature that is being installed on all newer cars, IIRC. This prevents kids from shutting themselves in car trunks and being unable to escape. In theory, at least. The Crown Vic Police Interceptors have them simply because the production Crown Vic does.

We just tape them to the trunk lid, problem selved. Besides, with all of the gear floating around in the trunk of my car, you couldn't FIT anyone back there. ;)

Mike
 
I dunno. It would seem that school shootings happen with alarming regularity as well, until you look at the actual data. We're pretty quick to engage in the same statistical chicanery we decry when VPC is doing it...

Got stats?

Mike
 
last spring a poliice officer from another city left three of his departments rifles and some other stuff at my gun club range. it was several months before he apparently realized it was missing. mcole
 
I would look at it as a government gift to its taxpayers :evil:


He'd get the rifle back, but I'd ask him nicely to take me out shooting on the police range. :)
 
"Hello Bushmaster? Yes, I'd like to order one stripped AR 15 receiver."

Anyone know how hot a fire I'd have to have to melt down a bushmaster receiver?
 
Okay, Mike--

- - You make a decent point there. Stranger things have hapened, and it COULD be a proper explanation. I admit that I subscribe to the principle that, if there are two or more explanations for a strange event, and one is far more likely and simpler than the others, THAT is the likely answer. In fairness, though, the alternatives should be checked out.

My county has issued me three different Crown Vics. The remote trunk release was located differently in each one. I have long and gangly legs. Job one: Make CERTAIN SURE the microphone cannot be accidentally keyed. Job two: Make sure the trunk remote cannot be accidentally activiated. Over the years, I have learned a certain amount of do-it-myownself re-engineering.:D

I bought that AR15 with my own money. Please believe me (especially in light of my earlier true confession:eek: ,) I have it well secured in my trunk. The issue 870 is even more secure--At home in my safe. Yep, I qualify with it once a year, clean it, and then put it up again.

Best,
Johnny
 
Most laptops mounted in cop cars are mounted on a swivel unit on the right side of the transmission hump, which allows access to the driver while allowing a passenger to sit in front. If Passenger gets in, swivel is often ulocked and rotated toward the driver to provide more room. That puts the left side of the laptop and mount against the dash, near where the thermostat controls are. Just above the thermostat controls in police Crown Vic cruisers is the pushbutton for the auto trunk release. This could get hit by a laptop, depending on the swivel mount height.

Many depts., especially state troopers, have taken to mounting their patrol rifles on the underside of their trunk lids, and just put a little more tension on the trunk lid springs. This allows the rifle to always be up top, no matter how much stuff is in the trunk.

At speed, when the trunk is popped, the trunk lid tends to stay down, mostly. With more weight in it, like a rifle case, I imagine it would sit lower. Catch a good bounce that shakes the carbine case from its mounts on the trunk lid, and voila! the carbine lands in the road.

Folks, these things really could happen. (shrug)
 
Just thought I'd add a little more on this subject. A similar story appeared on the news a week or so ago about the same subject, but different players. This time it was a select fire HK that was missing. It had been missing for months, but the parish sherrif's office decided not to tell the media about it. Apparently a SWAT officer somehow left his gear bag, w/the gun and ammo in it so that it ended up on the highway. A guy had picked it up and had been keeping it for himself, when a friend spilled the beans on him to the department and the gun was returned. The officer who lost the gun has since been removed from SWAT, and I don't remember if he was actually fired or not. I'll try and find the story and post it as soon as I can find it on the net.
 
OK.

I am not making this up.


This JUST happened to me, Saturday.

Well, no, not exactly. I didn't leave a firearm laying on a road, but follow along.

My partner and I load up our cruiser with our (2) gear bags, (2) Riot gear bags, (1) coffin-sized trunk organizer, (1) Fed-gov provided polaroid camera (sigh), (2) boxes of flares, (2) lunch boxes and (1) Remington 870 shotgun in its hard plastic case.

We get a run as we're loading up, so I slam the trunk lid and hop in. She starts the cruiser rolling, and after a few blocks we notice a creaking sound...we look back and...crap! The trunk's open.

She stops the car, I bail out and run around to the rear, with visions of disciplinary action for losing a city-issued shotgun...and *whew*, it is still there. I do a quick check...all gear accounted for. I curse myself for not getting the trunk lid closed tight, slam it extra hard and get back in.
:cuss:

Ten minutes and several miles later, the trunk is again open. :rolleyes:

Sigh.

We stop, I get out and check what I now remember to be the real culprit...and yup, internal trunk release is dangling again, and the shotgun case pulled it when it slid off of the trunk organizer. Fortunately, it was only hanging halfway out of the trunk. :eek: One more pothole and it probably would have fallen out.
:what:

Gents, the more I think about it, the Trooper is wrong. His laptop didn't pop the trunk, something in the trunk pulled that stupid release tab. If it was not secured properly (the duct tape came loose on mine), it WILL pop open.

Mike :cuss:
 
Depending on the FA capability of the Police Rifle...
Call ATF. Claim reward.

This solves three issues.
Negligent Cop is deprived of something he may or may not possess the responsibility to Keep.
Rifle off the Street
I get addition to my collection for my trouble. :)

What would happen to your Rifle if police found it in the Road??
"Sorry Officer my Laptop pushed my trunk release button, can I have my rifle back now please sir??" :rolleyes:
 
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I'd be very tempted to keep the thing. After all, if it is issued to local police I did pay for it :rolleyes: Just think of it as an addition to your tax return.

If it were FA I'd definitely turn it in though. The RIDICULOUS punishment for having an unregistered FA weapon is not worth the risk as far as I'm concerned. Now, if it were not marked LE in any way I'd try to find the owner because I'd want someone else to do the same for me. But a government entity is just going to issue another one if one gets lost, so I wouldn't feel bad about keeping something that was so obviously meant to be found by me :D
 
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