Having to sift through a dead man's gun stuff

[knockonit]

unfortunate on theft for sure as for sifting thru the DM items
when you outlive your friends you tend to do this more than intended in life, makes one revisit their own mortality, and their stash, me thinks i'll just leave it for the kids to finger out, as i have no idea nor an inclination to do so on my own crap. She'll sell it for what she wants, and guess what, I won't give a shite, cause you know, no one gets out alive
Rj

 

[Suck My Glock]

awe man this sucks!

Were the items still in the safe?!

The poor girl, despite being smart enough to be a school administrator, lacks common sense in other areas. In short, no,...the safes were NOT locked. Her father had no problem remembering the combinations, because he had chosen and set them. But even though he wrote them down for her while on his death bed, she was constantly paranoid she would lose the paper they were on and wouldn't remember them, so she just had them closed, but not locked. His house was heavily reinforced, and that was apparently her main anticipated protection.

Regardless,...this took time to pull off. There was much more than just the guns and ammo taken. Someone spent an entire day or two in there. Thus, suspicion (for us anyway) falls upon some neighbors across the street. They were in a position to observe comings and going,...would have been the most likely to have observed such a burglary,...and are considered by others on the block to be the black sheep of that street. Our gal is one of those people who always speaks at full volume (because she's used to speaking to classrooms over the shouts of children), so it's entirely possible she might have said something on the phone or to a more trusted neighbor that our persons of interest might still have heard without actually being there face to face with her. Who knows. She is also active on social media and had talked about her trip and when she would be out of town. So many personal and property security violations on her part. But that's your average American, unfortunately.

Glendale P.D. spent all night there taking prints and tool mark photos and whatever other forensice evidence they could. It seems likely that as much time as they spent in the house, the probability of them leaving clues is high. But processing that takes time and won't be quick.

 

[Ballistic Therapy]

What shame.
I hope they catch them.
I can't imagine having that many guns and no serial numbers written down ?
Without numbers , how would anyone know if it was one of those or not ?

 

[Azgunlover69]

Are any of your photos clear enough to zoom in and read any of the serial numbers?

 

[Suck My Glock]

Are any of your photos clear enough to zoom in and read any of the serial numbers?

That's the first thing I checked. Unfortunately, no. Again, at the time, my focus was just doing an appraisal. If I had any clue she was going to just leave the safes open, not only would I have demanded she not do so, I would have definitely written all the numbers down. I made clear to her at the time that I was happy to be of service with these things in any way necessary, even to include taking stuff to the gun shows to try to turn stuff into cash if that's what she wanted. And she didn't say no. But as I mentioned in the original post, there were some other relatives she wanted to give an opportunity to speak up for an item or two,...so she was not in a hurry to resolve anything just then. I understood and made sure she knew she could call on me in the future. I was just patiently awaiting to hear from her as to what she needed from me next.

 

[Abbey]

Thieves suck. Your original story inspired me to clean a few queens out of the safe, and now I'm even more motivated. Just make things that much less complicated for my wife when I'm gone.

 

[thom]

I go to a few gun shows each year and will be looking for Annies Powder Keg Primers. I am not very good at identifying rifles. But I will try to print off the pictures. Good luck.

 

[BigTub]

I asked my insurance agent and $5k is max for the coverage and they all need documentation and professional evaluation. Where does one go to get that?

 

[Ckoz59]

The older I get the more I try to thin things out just so I don't have to put my wife in a position to get rid of my "stuff"

 

[Yellowcarbon]

Keep a log with the info on your guns. I used to say keep a digital copy and email it to yourself, but that can be hacked if you care about that. Lately, I have been buying guns mostly through dealers for convenience, so there is already a digital profile. Old person to person sales can be different.

I keep a log with a description of the gun (including serial number), what you paid for it, and any special features about it (special barrel length, furniture, etc.). I also have a notes section where I included anything interesting or noteworthy. For example, traded item 1 for item 2 plus $200. Or it came with 10 spare magazines and an Aimpoint scope.

But this only matters if the person going through your stuff cares. Again, my Uncle who got me into guns, asked that I take care of his guns when he passes away. He asked that I go through his guns with his wife & sons to tell them what is special and what is just a run of the mill item. He has been collecting since the 1960's and one of his first guns was mail ordered. My mom (his older sister) actually had to sign for it at the post office as they wouldn't let a 15 year old sign for it.

My other uncle is a cop (along with several cousin's), he regularly gave my uncle guns as he didn't want any other than his carry gun (Colt Official Police). He would take them off of people when responding to calls. Back in the day, community police was a real thing. He would respond to calls and made a judgement call to just take away a gun rather than charge someone with a crime. One group from off island (this was Hawaii in the 1970's) was stopped and had a trunk full of guns. There were some robberies of local drug dealers and a gambling house. Since nobody would testify or make a complaint, he took away all the guns and said come get them from police station if they were legit. M1 carbines were cheap and handy. Many people used them for hunting in Hawaii (pigs & goats), so those would come up time to time. I know of at least a half dozen M1 carbines. I really need him to go through his collection next time I'm visiting.

 

[BigNate]

I've done it twice now... for two different friends of the family. It's no fun - but good to ensure that the surviving family doesn't get taken advantage of. Thanks for doing this...

 

[Suck My Glock]

UPDATE:

Well, a lot has transpired behind the scenes since May.

Glendale PD did come up with suspects. But one, in particular, they found his fingerprints all over the interior of the house, and was charged with a handful of things. The detectives have been awesome,...but the court,...not so much. The prosecutors bargained a whole bunch of stuff downward to where the dude only served 6 months.

The good news, however, is that while in jail, he apparently made enemies;...enemies that at first were friends, and whom he had shared details of the crimes and stolen goods, including where he had stashed a lot of it, intending to come back for it all after getting out. Glendale PD detectives served warrants on those locations and retrieved much of the stolen stuff. And the detectives themselves are apparently so disappointed with their own prosecutor in this thing, that because of the guns angle, have wispered in the ear of the feds that this would be a good case for them to take away for themselves so the guy does some federal time for gun theft. No word yet on if that is actually going to happen, but one can hope. (It's an odd feeling to be rooting for the feds to prosecute a gun thing, but oh well.)

The dude was released today from his 6 months, and is back in the neighborhood. Apparently some of the other unprosecuted suspects who were directly involved with him in the burglary also still reside in the hood. Our friend, the victim, is a little worried about her own safety about bumping into the guy. But Glendale detectives told her that it is their opinion he is bitter and more distracted with the fall out with his homies who ratted him out and that if anyone is in danger, it is them all currently paranoid with and pissed off at each other.

Lets hope that the feds decide this guy is deserving of some attention very soon.

 

[Doc]

UPDATE:

Well, a lot has transpired behind the scenes since May.

Glendale PD did come up with suspects. But one, in particular, they found his fingerprints all over the interior of the house, and was charged with a handful of things. The detectives have been awesome,...but the court,...not so much. The prosecutors bargained a whole bunch of stuff downward to where the dude only served 6 months.

The good news, however, is that while in jail, he apparently made enemies;...enemies that at first were friends, and whom he had shared details of the crimes and stolen goods, including where he had stashed a lot of it, intending to come back for it all after getting out. Glendale PD detectives served warrants on those locations and retrieved much of the stolen stuff. And the detectives themselves are apparently so disappointed with their own prosecutor in this thing, that because of the guns angle, have wispered in the ear of the feds that this would be a good case for them to take away for themselves so the guy does some federal time for gun theft. No word yet on if that is actually going to happen, but one can hope. (It's an odd feeling to be rooting for the feds to prosecute a gun thing, but oh well.)

The dude was released today from his 6 months, and is back in the neighborhood. Apparently some of the other unprosecuted suspects who were directly involved with him in the burglary also still reside in the hood. Our friend, the victim, is a little worried about her own safety about bumping into the guy. But Glendale detectives told her that it is their opinion he is bitter and more distracted with the fall out with his homies who ratted him out and that if anyone is in danger, it is them all currently paranoid with and pissed off at each other.

Lets hope that the feds decide this guy is deserving of some attention very soon.

Not the update we wanted but can’t say I’m surprised.

 

[BigNate]

Not surprising given the current political climate around prosecutors offices... The "punishing crime is racist" mindset is simply absurd.

 

[SupportTheSecond]

Kudos for the help you're giving. I have all of my weapons in a spreadsheet, what the current value is and other info just for this reason. I don't reload anymore so that's out of th equation. I also have every round of ammo in another spreadsheet. That may be more diffiicult to value down the road.

But with over 42K rounds of assorted ammo I'm pretty sure my son will get most of everything anyway.