The cops found her gun!

[El Barto]

Last night, when we got home, the neighbor was telling us that the police were looking for Mrs. and they were asking for her by name. We were very curious as to why and from the looks that the neighbor was giving us, we started thinking the worst. The officer didn’t leave a card or note or anything so we decided to let them come to us. Of course, today the Mrs. had a visitor at her work.

It turns out that the Hollywood PD arrested a gangbanger and he had in his possession a .45 that the Mrs. had stolen about 7 years ago. The police officer asked if she wanted it back and she said “of course, if anything to sell”. The officer immediately said that he would buy it but it would take about a year to get it back; that is if it hasn’t been used for a crime or anything. I told her that we’ll keep it and she can make it a Christmas gift to me next year. The “suspect” wasn’t even smart enough to try to grind off the serial numbers. The Mrs. doesn't remember too much about the gun, except that it is a .45 and was about $600.

 

[vynx]

"The officer immediately said that he would buy it but it would take about a year to get it back; that is if it hasn’t been used for a crime or anything."

Boy sounds like someone else is trying to steal it now. Must be a nice .45.

I wonder why he didn't offer to dispose of it for you?

 

[El Tejon]

I am continually amazed that alleged criminals carry guns with numbers on them.

Glad her property was recovered.

 

[FTF]

I am continually amazed that alleged criminals carry guns with numbers on them.

Because it's against the law to remove or destroy serial numbers...

Glad they caught the punk. Don't be surprised if it comes back having shot a few people.. all on it's own of course.

 

[SaxonPig]

A post card was forwarded to me from a previous address in CA 3 years ago informing me that an H&K Model 91 rifle stolen in 1986 had been recovered by the LAPD. Did I want it back? Yes, I did. No delays other than that they refused to send it to an FFL and required that I go to LA and pick it up in person.

 

[CTD99]

Sounds like the cop was a criminal. Trying to buy property cheap that was evidence in a crime? That's can't be legal, let alone ethical.

 

[Outlaws]

I am continually amazed that alleged criminals carry guns with numbers on them.

Because it doesn't matter if there is a number or not if the gun is stolden. If they get busted with it and the number is reported as stolden, they get in trouble for that. If they get busted with a firearm that is lacking a serial number, then they get busted for that then. Its a lose / lose situation, so why even bother removing it?

 

[vynx]

I have heard that filing off a serial number is not enough - they can xray it or something and still get the number besides doesn't a gun with the number scratched off scream illegal?

Besides who said gangbangers are smart?

Nice to get it back tho. Did you get some kind of paperwork from the officer?

Re-reading did he say he would buy it in a year? After you got it back? Maybe I was hasty but at first it read like he wanted your gun just sign it away to him.

 

[CrazyIrishman]

About five years ago a 9mm carbine was stolen from my house during the commission during a B&E. I was lucky nothing else was stolen. Maybe the perp didn't have enough time. I had the police dust for prints and while several prints

Every few months I would call the Baltimore City Police to see if it was ever found. So far its still out there.

After I called police to the scene to file a report, the officer asked what kind of firearm it was. When I told him it was a carbine he says "whats a carbine"?


I hope you get your 45 back in decent shape. Maybe the Mrs. can get reacquainted with the 'ol 45

 

[Sharps Shooter]

Wow El Barto, you and the “Mrs.” had some good luck! I’m glad.
My wife and I didn’t have nearly that good of luck when a gun I used to own turned up in LA in the hands of some gangbangers. I’ve told this story before, but I used to have an old Taurus .44 Special that I took to a gun show in Pocatello, Idaho for the sole purpose of trading it off for something I thought I might like better. My wife spotted a Sig 9mm she wanted and asked me if it was okay to trade that .44 Special in on it. I told sure, so she went out to the car and brought it in. The dealer made her an offer of about $250.00 I think and some short fat guy who had been standing there watching the whole transaction immediately offered my wife $50.00 more than what the dealer offered. We didn’t know that short fat guy from Adam, but my wife said, “Okay.” She handed the gun to the short fat guy, he handed her $300.00 in cash, and she turned back and handed that cash, along with a check, to the dealer. After filling out the paperwork, my wife walked away with her new Sig 9mm.
We were well pleased with the deal until about a year later when early one morning the FBI came knocking on our door. It seems that some gangbangers in LA had used that old Taurus .44 Special that was still registered to me during a holdup. The FBI guy assured us that I wasn’t in any trouble and he just wanted me to identify that .44 Special as the gun I once owned. The FBI already figured out how it ended up in LA – I sold it face to face (perfectly legal here) and whoever I sold it to resold it. So I identified the gun and gave the FBI a description of the guy (as best as I could remember) who handed my wife the cash for it.
We never heard another word about it. But the experience scared us enough to where we don’t sell guns except through FFL dealers anymore. Don’t get me wrong – it wouldn’t have mattered in the slightest to me if those gangbangers had used that gun to shoot somebody – I won’t even get into how stupid, ineffective, and suppressing gun registration is. It’s just that neither my wife nor I care to spend another morning sitting at our kitchen table discussing a gun one of us used to own with a FBI Agent.

 

[Jim Watson]

A crook would carry a gun with serial number for two reasons.
Mostly he is arrogant enough to think he won't get caught.
He might also know that theft of the gun and armed robbery are state level crimes, but deleting a serial number from a firearm gets the Feds interested.

As far as the original Mrs, if a cop is offering her $600 for a gun that has floated around the underworld for seven years, it must be a VERY desirable gun. I would check with the department and see why it would take a year to get it back. No reason unless it were evidence in a current case. Then recover it and refresh my memory as to its particulars and actual value.

 

[FTF]

I can see it taking a year, easy.

They have a gun they 'think' could have been used in a crime... so it's not going to the front of the line. Send it to a ballistics lab and shoot it. Send it to another lab to analyze the bullet for identifying marks. Then, send it to another lab to scan it into a computer to compare it to thousands, if not tens of thousands of bullets with identifying marks. If they get a hit, I imagine they have to check it in person under a microscope, so you have to send the bullet another place. Not to mention all the government paperwork and overall slowness of they system.

 

[ALACHARGER]

Let me get this straight...Cop asks if she wants it back, Mrs. says "of course, if anything to sell", and the cop says he'd like a chance to buy it. He also says that it'll take about a year for the paperwork to go through (checking to see if it's been used in a crime). That much time is not unusual for Forensics at all, in fact it's pretty fast (HINT: CSI, the show AIN'T real)

Original post don't mention what the officer offered to buy it for....says the Mrs. only remembers it was a .45, and that it was worth about $600.00.

I don't get it...where do you see that the officer is being unethical, criminal or anything remotely similar. Mrs. indicated that the gun might be for sale, officer indicated he might be willing to buy it.

As far as the serial number, crooks are usually pretty lazy...most of them don't bother to grind serial numbers because it's too much work.

 

[larry_minn]

I would bet the officer (small caps) get a lot of nice guns cheap with this method.

 

[javacodeman]

I have heard that filing off a serial number is not enough - they can xray it or something...?

Correct. Stamping metal changes the metalurgical properties of the underlying metal which is detectable in the shape of the serial number that was removed.

Wow, I just said "metal" a lot.

 

[GRIZ22]

To raise a serial number forensics basically uses acid. The metal under where the numbers were has been compressed by stamping the numbers at the factory making it denser. The acid eats the softer metal around where the numbers were. When the numbers come up a quicj rinse stops the etching.

Most criminals don't bother removing serial numbers. They get charged with illegal possession and possession of stolen property (if it is). Possession of a firearm with serial numbers removed is a much more serious rap that possession of stolen property. Its not that I believe most of them think this way to them removing a serial number would be work and that's why they're criminals.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I have heard that filing off a serial number is not enough - they can xray it or something and still get the number besides doesn't a gun with the number scratched off scream illegal?

Not X-ray. Closer to resonance imaging. The metal is more dense where it was stamped. Tougher to do with engraved numbers, but still possible. To "erase" the serial # completely, the criminal would have to drill all the way through.

To raise a serial number forensics basically uses acid. The metal under where the numbers were has been compressed by stamping the numbers at the factory making it denser. The acid eats the softer metal around where the numbers were. When the numbers come up a quicj rinse stops the etching

While effective, my understanding is that they do not use such, methods in this day and age of high-tech imaging devices anymore.

 

[the naked prophet]

The metal is not more dense where it was stamped, the metal is at 100% density throughout the part (excepting a pore aka a "bubble" in a MIM part). Pounding on the metal can't make it any denser. What it does is create a linear defect called a "dislocation" that is a misalignment of the crystal lattice. The dislocations move along the metal and that's why it deforms. However, the more dislocations there are, the harder the metal - the dislocations sort of "tangle" together, and that's why metal can be stress hardened. The metal which has been locally stress-hardened (in the shape of the numbers and letters of the serial number) is more resistant to the acid due to both the concentration of dislocations and residual compressive stress.

And that's been your nerd moment for the day.

If you really want to obliterate a serial number (say, on a destroyed firearm, but you don't want someone copying the number and then committing a crime with "your" pistol, or on a car, or whatever) you need to first grind off the serial number, then dimple the entire area with a center punch.

 

[El Barto]

Just to update...

I don't begrudge the cop any, if I were in that situation, I would offer the potential seller a couple of bucks for it also. Price wasn't mentioned but odds are he felt that he could get a deal (steal) from an unsuspecting seller. Even if I do want it, it does belong to the Mrs, aka Carmen and if she wants to sell it, it is up to her. I might cry a little though.

I can believe that it would take "almost a year" to check it out and get it back to her. Like FTF said, they will have to complete all of their investigating and whatnot to clear it and that kind of work isn't on any department's urgent list. I have no doubt that they will be quick to check to see if it was used in a killing but they will take their time to get it back to us.

Besides, this is Los Angeles. I will be surprised if the gun isn't "lost" or melted down. Ya got to protect the children ya know.

She did remember that it is a Smith and Wesson and she bought it at Western Auto.

 

[51Cards]

My ex-wife gave me her Dad's guns --- not only after he had passed, but after we were divorced!!

Being a reasonably law-abiding person, I surrendered two handguns to the Nassau County Police Dept., pending receipt of my (yaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwn) Pistol Permit. (Oh? It's ready? But I'm toooo old to shoot, now ... )

A 1943-vintage Colt 1911A1, with USAAC shoulder rig (having been carried by an actual genuine war hero), and a High Standard "B."

It took far, far, far longer and a HUGE :banghead: :banghead: amount of paperwork to pry those guns out of Properties.

Actually, it was my Licensing Officer who helped me the most!

Guess he had to buy the beer after that.