Suck My Glock
Member
Saw this article this morning and was confused. It claimed a man in Minnesota had bought a handgun at a big box retailer, and then when encountering a deputy in the field who ran his serial #, was arrested for possession of a stolen gun. Before reading the article, I assumed the store had bought it from somebody who exchanged it, but no.
Unfortunately, as I read the article, it never bothered to actually explain how the stolen weapon had ended up for sale at the big box retailer. The article instead went on to talk about how gun shops are not allowed to use the FBI national database of stolen weapons which could have prevented this. An important subject for sure,...but I was frustrated at the particular incident not being explained. Fortunately, the article had a link to the original burglary report, so I clicked on that to see if I could piece it together.
Amazingly, the gun was a Springfield .40S&W (XD perhaps?) stolen in Glendale in 2013. In 2018, someone in Atlanta (a used gun broker?) came across the gun and noted there was some sort of hit on it out of Glendale and contacted Glendale PD by phone trying to ascertain the disposition of the firearm. The particular detective or officer responsible was away from the phone at the time and apparently only had a voicemail message with incomplete contact info to reply to whomever was asking about the gun. The officer opted to reply to the request out of Atlanta by snail mail.
And that's the last that is recorded about the stolen weapon, until the unaware buyer from Minnesota is popped for having it in 2021. In that time, the gun had already been sold once to a different buyer by the big box retailer and returned by that purchaser and put back into inventory.
Near as I can figure, whatever used gun broker or other entity out of Atlanta that originally contacted Glendale PD gave GPD a number of days to respond to their information request, and when GPD didn't respond in that time frame, the holder of the gun apparently decided the matter was resolved or the hit no longer active and went ahead and sold the gun into the commercial re-selling stream, where it ultimately ended up on display in the retailer's gun counter in Minnesota.
Does this happen often? I'm certain it is quite rare, as this is the first such story like this I've ever heard of.
https://www.wsmv.com/2022/11/11/how-stolen-guns-can-be-sold-big-box-chain-stores-buyers-never-know/
Glendale PD theft report https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23297665-arizona-theft-report?responsive=1&title=1
Unfortunately, as I read the article, it never bothered to actually explain how the stolen weapon had ended up for sale at the big box retailer. The article instead went on to talk about how gun shops are not allowed to use the FBI national database of stolen weapons which could have prevented this. An important subject for sure,...but I was frustrated at the particular incident not being explained. Fortunately, the article had a link to the original burglary report, so I clicked on that to see if I could piece it together.
Amazingly, the gun was a Springfield .40S&W (XD perhaps?) stolen in Glendale in 2013. In 2018, someone in Atlanta (a used gun broker?) came across the gun and noted there was some sort of hit on it out of Glendale and contacted Glendale PD by phone trying to ascertain the disposition of the firearm. The particular detective or officer responsible was away from the phone at the time and apparently only had a voicemail message with incomplete contact info to reply to whomever was asking about the gun. The officer opted to reply to the request out of Atlanta by snail mail.
And that's the last that is recorded about the stolen weapon, until the unaware buyer from Minnesota is popped for having it in 2021. In that time, the gun had already been sold once to a different buyer by the big box retailer and returned by that purchaser and put back into inventory.
Near as I can figure, whatever used gun broker or other entity out of Atlanta that originally contacted Glendale PD gave GPD a number of days to respond to their information request, and when GPD didn't respond in that time frame, the holder of the gun apparently decided the matter was resolved or the hit no longer active and went ahead and sold the gun into the commercial re-selling stream, where it ultimately ended up on display in the retailer's gun counter in Minnesota.
Does this happen often? I'm certain it is quite rare, as this is the first such story like this I've ever heard of.
https://www.wsmv.com/2022/11/11/how-stolen-guns-can-be-sold-big-box-chain-stores-buyers-never-know/
Glendale PD theft report https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23297665-arizona-theft-report?responsive=1&title=1
