Bummer would not describe how mad I would be. Scum bags like that need to be taken out behind the barn for one hell of a long time. How someone can steal anything from anybody I don't know, but your own family, they need to be hung from a tree.  

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It's always good for stolen property to be returned- even when the gov't did the stealiing, as is the case with my Mod14.

As best I can recall the story, my friend lived and hunted in upstate NY and has purchased the DW used. The laws there required he register it, which he did. In traveling with it in the trunk if his car, unloaded and in a locked suitcase he was pulled over and ticketed for "excess velocity" while driving   The LEO asked if he could search the car and my friend having nothing illegal to hide said "Sure". He even handed over the key to the suitcase, stating what was inside, safe and unloaded along with the registration license for the DW and another pistol, and the original bills of sales he got from the store he bought them at  All was nice till the LEO actually saw the pistols, at which point he arrested my friend for the traffic violation and took him to jail, guns now in his trunk. Seems that in county at that time you had to have a permit to carry a firearm concealed, which differed from the law where my friend lived and started his journey from. Of course the guns were confiscated  

My friend was released almost immediately, charged only with the speeding ticket which he was allowed to pay on the spot, and they even took him back to his car. They said he would have to go to court to get his property back  He went in person to do that on his way back through, and they set up a court date, which was delayed two years by that county. In the meantime my friend got a lawyer on the case. That guy was good. In the Coutroom all agreed that my friend had no choice but to conceal the guns where the trip began; all agreed that was legal. He crossed another county without stopping to enter this one, breaking no laws on the way, and that county also required handguns be locked in the trunk; again all agreed was legal. Then the biggie- the lawyer asked the Judge how it would be possible for my friend to comply with the laws of his county without having to break the laws of another 

The Judge had no answer except that in this county the law was being applied by him fairly and legally and that my friend was lucky that only confiscation resulted. The Judge was known to be anti-gun and actually said if he'd been on duty when the arrest occurred he would have charged my friend with a felony of illegal possession of a concealed handgun  Itrook another two years to get a State court hearing, and using the same argument that court agreed that in this case, the county law, while still valid, applied only to unlicensed concealed carry and that it was that County's problem to allow for someone to legally leave one County and to make the changes to comply with their Laws in that County since it couldn't be legally done anywhere else; so the confiscation was illegal and the guns had to be returned to the owner. Just fill out these forms, please 

My friend had filed and refiled the paperwork, which they claimed they had lost, and another two years has gone by. The Lawyer has followed up and the County said it was going to happen, be patient as hey don't have a large staff for this, but my friend would get his guns soon.Six years later he's living in the sunny south, far from the lunacy he called home, and where gun laws are much saner  A deputy shows up at his door and asks "Are you so-and-so?" holding some paperwork  (Note here that my friend has a very unusual name that nobody could mistake- if they could pronounce it right in the first place which the Deputy could not  ) My friend said yes, that's probably my name you're butchering and checked visually to confirm that, expecting to be arrested or served in a lawsuit of which he had no idea could be about- he'd been good and legal same as you or me. The deputy said "We've got some property that belongs to you downtown. Fill out these forms, get them notarized, and claim your property. The forms were for the return of "stolen goods". My friend was puzzled- he'd not had anything stolen that he'd reported to the police here! The forms didn't indicate what the items were- just that there were two items which were given property numbers. 

My friend calls me and wants to know my attorney's number. He tells me the tale of his being served these papers and I too am baffled. Being a skeptic I smell something fishy, is this some kind of set-up? If so why didn't that arrest him when they handed him the paperwork? This makes no sense. MyLawyer tells him that he should go do all the stuff to recover the stolen property, but to refuse it if it doesn't belong to him if he wants to. According to what they Lawyer could find the Courts here had determined he was the rightful owner of said property so my friend could not be committing a crime by taking what they said was his so long as he could legally possess it- even if it didn't really belong to him  Still not knowing what it was about, my friend goes downtown. On the way home he stops by and tells me the tale of the DW in his car- and he's short on cash so would I be interested? 

A very fair sum of money went his way and a DW came my way. I saw all the paperwork copies he had- indeed he had recovered "Stolen Goods" according to this state, which had been turned over by NY state which had a non-legal claim on the property which was being returned  In effect SC said NY had stolen these guns and that the owner wanted them back! Later on it turned out that the lawyer who had so long ago worked on the case happened to be talking with a new friend, and that person had just retired from working in the 'no-gun' County Court. The lawyer wondered aloud if the guns had been returned and mentioned my friends unusual name. The guy actually remembered logging the guns into custody ten years before because of the name! That guy, unbeknownst to anyone, looked into it and discovered these guns had been set aside during the court cases and were almost lost to the system- they were not listed in current inventory but someone remembered they were placed in a filing cabinet locked away from other confiscated guns which were routinely melted down after a year in custody   They were found and a phone call made, asking for this guy to contact the lawyer for a current address of my friend. The lawyer called the only listing in the local phone book with the unusual name and got my friends Dad who gave the current address after ascertaining his son wasn't in trouble.  Nothing was said to my friend, and not wanting to pay a FFL fee the NY Court sent the guns to the appropriate PD here directly. On calling the lawyer later my friend also found out that he was sending a check to refund his original fee in a couple weeks, which NY agreed to cover since their state had erred in the confiscation 

And now you know the rest of the story. And as you might think, with all my Mod 14 has gone through to get to me there is no way in Hades it is going anywhere else till after I quit breathing  Like me this one has been through more than most in many places and it's time for the craziness it has been through to end. And thanks to my friend, not only for the DW which by all means was enough, but for also cleaning and oiling well which is why this DW didn't just rust away during it's ten years of being "stolen".

Sorry for the long story and beware a government-any government- that tries to steal your guns 

Phil

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I am so sorry to hear about you having to give back a prized Dan.  It looks like everyone lost out in this deal.   Very Sorry.   R S

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