Funny interaction with a sheriff

[HOME DEPOT GEORGE]

So I had a yard sale today but put the signs up thursday listing ammo,fishing tackle,tools and a couple handguns. Since I put the signs up early I had some people stopping buy last evening to inquire about the guns. It was just about dark and my wife calls me from the kitchen and said there was a deputy coming up the walk,. I asked him in and he said there had been about a dozen calls about someone selling handguns at my address and he just wanted to be sure everything was legit so I asked if he wanted to see the ones I was selling and we went back to the bedroom where my safe was stored . Well 45 min later and a cup of coffee he wants to buy my Sig290 for his wife and he even complemented the confederate flag hung up in my garage.What I think happened and he agreed, was this time of year we get the "snowbirds" coming from up north to spend the winter down here. All in all I think the interaction went well.

 

[Schwing]

Sometimes I wish there was like button on THR. That was great!

 

[berettaprofessor]

One thing I've learned about garage sales is that if you put "starts at 7:00 a.m." on your signs, people will be in your driveway at 6:30 a.m.

Nobody even had to tell me not to put "handguns" on a garage sale sign. I'm only surprised that your phone didn't ring all night long.

 

[old lady new shooter]

So I had a yard sale today but put the signs up thursday listing ammo,fishing tackle,tools and a couple handguns. Since I put the signs up early I had some people stopping buy last evening to inquire about the guns. It was just about dark and my wife calls me from the kitchen and said there was a deputy coming up the walk,. I asked him in and he said there had been about a dozen calls about someone selling handguns at my address and he just wanted to be sure everything was legit so I asked if he wanted to see the ones I was selling and we went back to the bedroom where my safe was stored . Well 45 min later and a cup of coffee he wants to buy my Sig290 for his wife and he even complemented the confederate flag hung up in my garage.What I think happened and he agreed, was this time of year we get the "snowbirds" coming from up north to spend the winter down here. All in all I think the interaction went well.

Wow, I can't even imagine living somewhere where that could happen.

 

[HOOfan_1]

A couple of days after the Oregon shooting, VCU in Richmond was locked down due to reports of a man with a rifle. The police found nothing, and I was very surprised when the Richmond Police chief added to his announcement, that it is perfectly legal for people to open carry in Virginia. Not something I would have expected from Richmond Police.

This was during the Nor'Easter that was dumping rain on the East Coast, so my guess is someone mistook an umbrella for a rifle. That has happened multiple times in the past.

 

[Old Fuff]

Happens in Arizona all the time. Under our (almost total lack of) laws concerning private sales between state residents our law enforcement folks don't go into a panic as long as everything is above question.

 

[Salmoneye]

I've never seen anyone panic about guns advertised here in VT either...

 

[guyfromohio]

Although I'm a little uncomfortable with you feeling the need to prove things were legit.....in THIS country, he needs to prove they aren't, I'm glad it turned out that way. Just three weeks ago, I did an Armslist trade with a police officer....guns for gun. Nothing more than a smile, handshake, and light chat. Last year, I sold a gun to a uniformed deputy, who pulled up in a squad car.... Armslist. Nothing more than a handshake and cash exchanged.

 

[bannockburn]

HOME DEPOT GEORGE

Not to be critical of what you were selling at your garage sale but I have always been of a mindset that the fewer people that know I have guns (even more so at my home address), the better. Too much information being made available to total strangers. No NRA bumper sticker, no gun magazine subscriptions, and no guns or ammo for sale at a garage sale. Maybe I am being overly cautious about such things but I feel that the safety of my family in our home is of the utmost importance in this day and age.

 

[X-Rap]

A deputy showing up at your house to check on legal personal sales seems to be more than a snowbird problem.
Did he cite any infraction he was concerned about.
If a deputy was ever invited to look into my safes without a warrant I'd better be sleeping with her, for a while.

 

[Ed Ames]

This was during the Nor'Easter that was dumping rain on the East Coast, so my guess is someone mistook an umbrella for a rifle. That has happened multiple times in the past.

That happened to me once, years ago.

We had just arrived and were setting up camp in a national forest service camp ground when a police car comes screaching in to block our camp spot, and a police officer gets out beligerantly demanding, "Where is the rifle!"

Everyone looked at him like, "What drugs are you on?"

"I was driving by on the highway and saw you with a rifle. I turned around and came back, so where did you hide it?"

"Sorry dude, I'm 15, I can't even legally own a rifle, and this is California, people don't just carry rifles around."

I'm convinced that if I hadn't had two other people agreeing with me he would've called backup and torn our car/campsite to the ground looking for my.. tent poles? I'm guessing he saw me pick up a bundle of tent poles.

Needless to say, I don't think I'd advertise guns when hosting a garage sale. Then again, I'm not a huge fan of hosting garage sales....

 

[HKGuns]

Snowbirds huh? Yeah, because no-one in the Northern part of the Country owns firearms? Right.

 

[Leanwolf]

X-RAP - "... If a deputy was ever invited to look into my safes without a warrant I'd better be sleeping with her, for a while."

I can not imagine showing the contents of my safe to a cop without a specific warrant.

Just my thoughts.

L.W.

 

[HOME DEPOT GEORGE]

Wow I didn't realize people were this paranoid with law enforcement. He came to the house because they had received complaints about someone selling guns at my address and I guess I can't blame them for that. I also should have clarified that while not being on a first name basis with the sheriffs I know a lot of them from assisting in shoplifting apprehensions. As far as the snowbird thing yeah I know people own guns up north but starting around this time every year we get a huge amount of people from the northeast-NY,NJ,MA etc and they bring their politics with them. Hell I had a girl at the store who transferred from NYC to our Home Depot go absolutely apeshi@t when she saw a pic I was showing a buddy with my then 8 and 9 year old niece and nephew shooting my 22. It might be hard to understand if you're not from this area but when you start seeing the people wearing khaki shorts, argyle socks pulled up to their knees and a pair of sandals you know it's the beginning of 5 months of dealing with the "snowbirds"

 

[ford8nr]

Wow I didn't realize people were this paranoid with law enforcement.

I never was till last year.
Buddy got into a 'misunderstanding'. Police Officers he knew invited him to stop by the station to clear things up. He babbled away with his police 'buddies' giving them a statement without a lawyer. Ended costing him 5 months in County Jail. I'm not saying he was totally innocent, but the only things he was charged with was from HIS STATEMENTS.

 

[CoalTrain49]

We have neighbors that shoot in their yards. Some days I hear it from several directions. Every now and then a sheriff will show up and ask if I'm shooting. I say no and ask him if a pavement dweller just moved into the neighborhood and he says yes. We go on about our business. It's quite comical.

 

[yugorpk]

I never was till last year.
Buddy got into a 'misunderstanding'. Police Officers he knew invited him to stop by the station to clear things up. He babbled away with his police 'buddies' giving them a statement without a lawyer. Ended costing him 5 months in County Jail. I'm not saying he was totally innocent, but the only things he was charged with was from HIS STATEMENTS.

Drives me nuts every time I watch 48 hours. I'm sitting there on my couch yelling "**** you idiot. You arent going to talk your way out of it! WHERE IS YOUR LAWYER ??? AAAAAHHHHH" Then my wife brings me a beer to calm me down.

 

[newfalguy101]

I never was till last year.
Buddy got into a 'misunderstanding'. Police Officers he knew invited him to stop by the station to clear things up. He babbled away with his police 'buddies' giving them a statement without a lawyer. Ended costing him 5 months in County Jail. I'm not saying he was totally innocent, but the only things he was charged with was from HIS STATEMENTS.

I dunno, but perhaps it may serve you better to be more paranoid about the people you are buddies with than the police.......they just did their jobs, you know, interviewing, and arresting people who have broken the law..............its not like they picked the guys name out of a hat and called him up for a chat............more than likely, they already had a pretty good idea about what happened.

 

[Bobson]

I never was till last year.
Buddy got into a 'misunderstanding'. Police Officers he knew invited him to stop by the station to clear things up. He babbled away with his police 'buddies' giving them a statement without a lawyer. Ended costing him 5 months in County Jail. I'm not saying he was totally innocent, but the only things he was charged with was from HIS STATEMENTS.

How is that a problem with the cops?

Your buddy did some stuff he shouldn't have done, went and bragged about it to the cops cause they're his friends, and is surprised when they charge him? Congratulations, the cops in your locale understand their integrity is more important than their friendships. We should all be so lucky.

 

[Ignition Override]

Snowbirds?
Two of them moved from New England to Rural northwest MS in Hernando, close to Memphis.
They heard shooting one day in their area on a weekend, panicked and called 911.

After a helicopter and at least one county patrol car converged on the scene, the LEOs learned how ignorant some northerners can be about normal practice. What a pair of total nitwits-to be polite.

On the other hand, a conservative friend from Long Island NY was already more familiar with guns than many Memphians.

 

[Ryanxia]

Sounds like a good situation. While I agree with some of the others that I would not have been quite as accommodating, certainly no reason you can't be if you desire to. Definitely would be funny if he ends up buying one.

 

[ford8nr]

Your buddy did some stuff he shouldn't have done, went and bragged about it to the cops cause they're his friends, and is surprised when they charge him?

Not quite.
And it opened my eyes how easy it is to get shafted.
Without getting into details he was in the 'grey zone' of activities, have you ever exceed the speed limit or other 'law breaking'
So someone complains and accuses him of a crime but they don't have anything to charge him with. He gets 'invited' in to clear things up by officers he knows. He talks and they run him in circles until he's not sure what the sequence of events were or how he stated them. They then said he was free to go. Couple weeks later they notify him he's being charged with a crime. Lawyer and two years later he gets offered a plea to a completely different charge saving a trial and chance of bigger charges. His lawyer thought they should go to trial, he just wanted to be done.
This is why most every course dealing with home defense shootings teach 'say nothing except I thought he/she/they were going to kill me and I need to talk to a lawyer. Anything you say can and WILL be used AGAINST YOU.
My buddy was guilty of being stupid twice, once in the deed and once in talking to the police.

 

[BigBore44]

The problem with so many people now concerning law enforcement is the "us against them" mentality. Sure there are bad cops. I know a few. But I know 50 times more good cops. The police used to be the people we enjoyed seeing. Never worried about seeing one in your rear view mirror unless you were doing something wrong. But now that has all changed and not for the better.

TV, music (from classic rock to modern "rap") slanted news stories etc have all influenced this movement. Now I'm not saying it's not LE's partial fault. It is. They are developing more of the "us vs. them" mentality too. I'm seeing it more everyday. Blacked out windows on patrol cars, cops always wearing shades, cops not waving back at you when you show them that courtesy (really chaps my _____). But I wouldn't hesitate to let a single officer or deputy from my county show up if there had been a complaint like that and look in my safe. I have nothing to hide. What's he gonna do? Steal my guns? No. Run my serial numbers? I'll provide the list. Granted I don't live in a big city. We have maybe 11,000 people here. But the stigma is no different for a lot of folks. And that's just sad.

I'll tell you all right now, I have 2 guns that are really worth any amount of money. A loaded M1-A w/Leopoldo 6x18, fiber force stock, and Harris bipod ($2500 maybe?) and my great great grandfather's original, numbers matching, fully functional, Colt 3rd Model Dragoon ($=A lot more than the M1 lol). Anyone wants to come try and steal it, give it your best shot. Even if no one is home, you won't get it. I won't tell you why you won't. But it's not some home security system. You just won't.

Guns at a garage sale. Love it. Wish there was more of it.

 

[X-Rap]

Guns at a garage sale, great, cop coming by the night before wanting to know whats up? I've got no time for that.
I frankly used to have the same "I've got nothing to hide" attitude, no more. They know way more about me than anyone has a right already.
If a cop wants to come by the garage sale in the morning, more power to him.

 

[Mr Woody]

The Police had a call, probably from a snowbird. What if the police ignored the call figuring nothing was wrong figuring it was a no nothing Northerner. What if it turned out to be a convicted felon selling guns to his buddies who were about to go out and knock over the corner store.

The press would be talking about the lazy police not doing their jobs, they would be calling for heads to roll and everyone here would be agreeing. I think the officer did his job with the right level of contact.