I bought a stolen gun!!

[Fray Bentos]

Wow, a lot of stolen gun threads around here lately.....

Found this website..http://www3.fdle.state.fl.us/fdle/guns_search.asp and just for giggles typed in the serial of the ONLY gun I have bought since I moved to FL from a classified ad......and it comes up stolen!

Got in touch with the reporting police department and they are sending a Sherrif over to look at it.

As a C&R holder I have the drivers license number of the guy I bought it from, plus the original ad from the paper so I am not worried about getting in trouble and hopefully they will be able to ask the guy I bought it from some questions.

Looks like I will be out $350 for the gun (FN49)...sucks.

[fastfreddy]

Sorry to hear about your loss but cheers for doing the right thing. Maybe good like yourself will have his stolen gun returned to him now. Maybe some scumbag will receive the rehabilitation he so rightly deserves. Let us know how it goes.

I'm going to see if my state has such a list.

[alphadog58]

Might be a typo in the serial number. My resident trooper told me a gun stolen from me a few years ago had been recovered in a drug bust in a nearby town. Upon further investigation I learned that the PD that recovered the gun typed the wrong serial number into the stolen guns database. Dang, it wasn't my piece!

Larry

[Fray Bentos]

I doubt it is a typo, the first officer I spoke to was concerned with that, but I doubt FN49s figure too highly on the list of stolen guns.
Still waiting for the Sherrif to turn up.

[bouncer50]

Like went i go to gunshow their always some guys carrying around guns for sale. I never bought one with the fear it mine be HOT. Even if i had proof who sold it to me i still out what i paid for it.

[Da Nerd]

Have the police (if they can contact the seller) tell him that unless he makes restitution to you.. he will go to jail for selling stolen property.
Works most of the time..

[Mad Dog 7.62]

If you matched it by serial number only, it could well be a different gun. Might be a Star pistol or ????. So have them make sure it's a FN49 that was stolen and not just something with the same serial number.
It is particularly possible with firearms to get a hit by serial number and have the wrong gun because firearms are the ONLY thing that is never, ever purged from the NCIC system. Once a firearm is entered, it stays in there forever or until it is recovered. Your serial number might match a stolen gun that was entered 20+ years ago.
MD

[vicg1]

I bought one from a pawn shop in Jax FL... about a month later PD calls and tells me it's stolen. Turns out it was taken 10 years before... PD called insurance company that paid off on it and they stated they didn't want it so I was allowed to keep it...

[John Culver]

Originally posted by vicg1
I bought one from a pawn shop in Jax FL... about a month later PD calls and tells me it's stolen. Turns out it was taken 10 years before... PD called insurance company that paid off on it and they stated they didn't want it so I was allowed to keep it...

Thats nice, just make sure the PD purges it from the database (would be a pain later on if they forgot to)

[arashi]

Be wary when you have a gun checked against NCIC. NCIC will show a possible "hit" on the serial number alone. Many in law enforcement will not notice the difference in the type of firearm listed and tell you it has been reported stolen.

All pawn shops in my area must send lists of items and serial numbers to local law enforcement. Some poor peon must run all of the items in NCIC, but since it is such an unpopular task, it may take several months for them to run them.

One time my father purchased a firearm from a LA County SO deputy. When he went to sell it, it was reported as stolen. It was later admitted that the deputy had reported it stolen to collect the insurance money...

[Fray Bentos]

Well I waited around for most of the day for the Sherrifs dept to show up, but had to go to work. They didn't even leave a message so I don't think they ever came out.
Spoke to another officer today and he suggested I bring it in to the Police dept in the city it was reported stolen from (as opposed to giving it to the local Sherrifs office who are meant to have jurisdiction over it.
I just hope they follow up on the info of the guy I bought it from, the amount of to-ing and fro-ing I am getting so far I doubt anyone will ever take responsibility for it and nothing will ever get done.

Really shouldn't be this hard to do the right thing....

[55bird]

The few I've sold and purchased privately,I have always retained DL license info on the other party,one fellow protested at first then agreed it was a good idea.If it ends up in a crime and you bought it from a dealer then sold it,Guess What?You need to be able to explain where it went,to whom.I know many will say you don't have to tell them anything but I can't afford good legal advice and they have an army behind them(Investigators).Fray Bentos,always do the right thing as you are.

[garandguy10]

are you sure that it is listed as a stolen FN49 rifle?,i just entered a serial number for a M1A and it was listed as stolen by serial number,however the stolen firearm was a 9mm armscorp pistol,click on the hypertext link on the page to get a better description of the weapon.

[Fray Bentos]

Yes it was definitely the gun I had. I dropped it off at the reporting p/d this morning (sad to have to watch the cop chick trying to 'clear' the weapon, with me giving her instructions through the glass!).
They also gave me a copy of the original report that the victim made (apparently it's public record) and it was a shame to see that a rather nice collection had been taken all at once.
Anyway I called the victim and left a message to let him know that his property is recovered and that the police have the DOB, DL number, phone number and address of the person I bought the gun from and that he may want to remind the detective(s) to follow up on this.
I also offered to buy the gun back from him if he was interested, I don't want to pay twice but maybe there is some arrangement we can come to with me making a contribution to the deductible on his insurance- it's worth a try I figure!

[gunseller]

Several years ago I traded guns with a dealer only to have the FBI call several months later. I gave the agent the name, address and phone number of the dealer that I had traded with. About a week later the agent called back and told me that the dealer said that he was not the one that I have traded with. I told the agent that I had the guys business card that he had given me when we traded. As far as I know that was the end of it. The gun had been used in a crime in Minniapolis.
Gunseller

[Batman]

Now here's an interesting story....

I'm going over to Canada to hunt ducks. So I take along a couple of shot guns. One is a Browning A-5 that I just bought from a reputable store. I always stop into the US customs office prior to going over the boarder so as to register whatever guns that I have not previously registered (proof of ownership for the return entry in US). Expecting no problems I take the A-5 into the station and fill out the forms. Sure enough when they run the gun through NCIC the gun comes up stolen out of Minn.

Well, OK what to do now? The agent calls up to their main office to get a CO to make a decision on what to do. After about 20 minutes or so the agent comes out and says that the CO won't come down and deal with this issue (it was on a Sunday in the morning and the CO would have about an hours drive to get to us). So the Agent says he has to call the local PD and they will have to deal with it. So he does just that and about 15 minutes later a local cop comes by and takes a look at the gun then goes and talks to the agent. Cop comes out and says that they are not going to do anything about it as the customs station is on Federal property and so it's a "Federal matter". Cop goes back to his car with coffee and donut. Agent calls up to his CO and tells him what happened. Ten minutes later agent comes out to me and says "take your gun and go away". I was dumb founded! Agent just said it's my luck day but he couldn't give me the paper I needed and I couldn't take it out of the country.

So lucky for me I met a friend at the boarder and he parked his truck in a strip mall next to the boarder crossing station. So I dumped the gun in his truck and went to Canada to hunt with my other shotgun. But as I was hunting the next day I thought "man, that's not right". All the LEO's rolled over on this.

So when I got back into the US I called the Michigan State Police and they ran the check on it again. Sure enough, the gun that was stolen was a Raven Arms .380, not an A-5. I bought the gun from a good gun store so they gave me all my money back as I didn't want to deal with clearing the problem up.