LanceThruster
Member
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2009
- Messages
- 14
Sorry if this is elsewhere in some other thread. I'll continue to look to see if I can find the answer regarding this issue.
Just heard from a co-worker this morning about a situation involving his brother. His brother had a handgun stolen 14 years back. He reported it, has the paperwork on legal ownership, and has done everything by the book.
He got a call recently from LAPD, that the gun was located in a local pawn shop when the owner tried to sell it (running the serial number for transfer flagged it on a stolen registry database). The police confirmed that it was the stolen weapon as well as it was not involved in any crime that they know of, and essentially washed their hands of the whole thing.
The problem is that the pawn broker wants the legal owner to pay the pawn ticket on the weapon ($300). I contacted a retired attorney for general info (he's not allowed to actually give legal advice any longer), who said it depends on CA statute and if the pawn broker exercised reasonable effort to determine if said handgun was stolen (as per whatever the CA law is).
Some of the web searches I've done show that police can confiscate the stolen property and return it to the legal owner regardless of if the pawn broker or some other buyer were out any money (see: http://www.gunsandammomag.com/cs/Satellite/IMO_GA/Story_C/Pawned+And+Gone ).
I'm also going to refer the person in question to this site to set up an account to give further detail if needed, but would be grateful for and information on where/how to resolve this. I've found some info re: the CA Dept. of Justice and firearm/handgun laws and am recommending he contact them regarding the details given, as well as some listings on CA pawnbrokers and gun sales (though it mostly had to do with the selling of the gun by the pawn broker and not much on the initial purchase). The other thing that seems crazy is that the police would only pursue action against the seller of the stolen property (who they have photos of and other ID - whether real or not - don't they take thumb prints too?) if the pawn broker or original owner filed a complaint (which could make them targets for gang retaliation). You'd think the police would realize that and follow-up on their own (especially with all the "guns and crime" hysteria).
Just seems screwy that stolen property can be identified and recovered, and not returned to the legal, rightful owner. I'm very curious to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.
Thanks. More later.
Just heard from a co-worker this morning about a situation involving his brother. His brother had a handgun stolen 14 years back. He reported it, has the paperwork on legal ownership, and has done everything by the book.
He got a call recently from LAPD, that the gun was located in a local pawn shop when the owner tried to sell it (running the serial number for transfer flagged it on a stolen registry database). The police confirmed that it was the stolen weapon as well as it was not involved in any crime that they know of, and essentially washed their hands of the whole thing.
The problem is that the pawn broker wants the legal owner to pay the pawn ticket on the weapon ($300). I contacted a retired attorney for general info (he's not allowed to actually give legal advice any longer), who said it depends on CA statute and if the pawn broker exercised reasonable effort to determine if said handgun was stolen (as per whatever the CA law is).
Some of the web searches I've done show that police can confiscate the stolen property and return it to the legal owner regardless of if the pawn broker or some other buyer were out any money (see: http://www.gunsandammomag.com/cs/Satellite/IMO_GA/Story_C/Pawned+And+Gone ).
I'm also going to refer the person in question to this site to set up an account to give further detail if needed, but would be grateful for and information on where/how to resolve this. I've found some info re: the CA Dept. of Justice and firearm/handgun laws and am recommending he contact them regarding the details given, as well as some listings on CA pawnbrokers and gun sales (though it mostly had to do with the selling of the gun by the pawn broker and not much on the initial purchase). The other thing that seems crazy is that the police would only pursue action against the seller of the stolen property (who they have photos of and other ID - whether real or not - don't they take thumb prints too?) if the pawn broker or original owner filed a complaint (which could make them targets for gang retaliation). You'd think the police would realize that and follow-up on their own (especially with all the "guns and crime" hysteria).
Just seems screwy that stolen property can be identified and recovered, and not returned to the legal, rightful owner. I'm very curious to see if anyone else has had a similar experience.
Thanks. More later.