I'll try to keep a long story short:

 

Back in Feb '94 my grandfather passed away. Apparently shortly before that moment he had decided to clean the remaining guns in his collection (a previously sizable collection at one point). They were partially disassembled and laid out on the dining room table. At the time my parents wanted nothing to do with them, and as the police and EMT's were there they(my parents) requested the police hold the "weapons" for later pick up. The officer(s) present took the pile of parts and hand wrote a gun receipt.

 

The receipt reads something like this:

 

Gun receipt

Colt .45

Shotgun

30-06 rifle

 

Signed by the officer

 

This was 19yrs ago and something we had totally forgotten about until we came across it cleaning the office last year(it would take a bit to track it down again, but its here). My grandfather was born in 1918 and served with the 94th infantry division sometime in the late 30's early 40's. It wasn't something he ever talked about so even my father(his son) is fuzzy on the details of his service. But given the time frame, those may or not have been his service weapons. I'm dying to find out, and my curiosity, along with our relative lack of any information on the family history has piqued the families interest as well.

 

I've had a difficult(thats the biggest understatement I can offer politely) getting any info from the PD involved. No returned calls, not even to a buddy who called to help me out(a detective from another local town). I don't want to waste their time of mine if these are items that were destroyed long ago, but no one seems to know exactly what the procedures and state guidelines are. So if anyone can offer advice I'd love to hear.

 

Thanks

Usually the Chief of Police is the guy to speak to. I have heard of something similar. Good chance someone is still on payroll and possibly remembers that day.

 

In my story, they reimbursed as the officers filed them as forfeited to the state.

Is there a set time frame before any forfeiture would occur? Legally that is?

19 years? The guns either went into some cops personal collection or the state furnace.

19 years? The guns either went into some cops personal collection or the state furnace.

Lautenmummy had them melted I'm sure.. Sad to say.

In the 50's several guns were stolen from my grandfathers house, the local PD recovered them but the family never went to retrieve them. Sometime in the 80's my mother remembered them and got a bug in her ass to get them back. She went for her ID and we did get them back from the local PD as they(really surprised) still had them in the station. Personally I am glad she got them as one is a Savage 99 in 30-30 made in 1916 that my grandfather bought new when he turned 18. Good luck getting them back.

Make an appointment with the chief of police, take the receipt and ask for an inventory of the gun locker at the police station if they tell you the firearms are not there. If they claim the firearms were "destroyed" demand to see the paperwork the department MUST file when disposing of firearms.

 

 

I went through something similar with my dad's guns in Bayonne, for nearly twenty (20) years the detective in charge of the section dealing with firearms seized, stored, surrendered, or found, a well-known douchebag in the department would tell my mom the firearms were destroyed, they weren't. After as meeting with the chief in 2000 the detective in question set up a meeting, when we appeared with our attorney (my best friend), who was going to take possession of the firearms the detective held to the lie the guns were destoyed. It wasn't until I saw the detective had a recent 25th wedding anniversary photo on his desk showing his wife and daughters that I said "didn't you used to date Kenny ************'s mother?" I knew the detective was cheating on his wife with my friends mom in the early-mid 80's, all colored drained from his face as he scurried to the stations gun locker only to reappear minutes later with all four (4) firearms in hand. The guns are back out of the hands of police but the metal ammo can full of .22, .303, and 12 ga ammunition was missing. You should've seen my father's face when I said what I did to the detective, once outside police headquarters my father questioned the propriety of what I said to the detective, I replied to my dad "we got the guns back didn't we", he shook his head and smiled. Now that my dad's gone it's one of my favorite memories, how I didn't let him get screwed.

 

Note: I'm pro-law enforcement, I was on the list for NYPD, Newark, and Jersey City but have NO tolerance for dishonest or crooked cops.

good luck OP! Interested to see the outcome of this...