Stolen OOW 1918A3 - Recovered!

[Oldtrooper]

Four years ago in July of 2017 I posted about a gun safe being stolen from my son's rural home with 24 firearms inside. Today I received a call from the Sheriff department that seven of the stolen guns have been recovered, including the OOW 1918A3. All I know right now is that they were recovered in the county north of us ... I have no idea of the condition of the weapons. Waiting on the Sheriff department to notify us as to when we can pick the guns up. All they told me was that no charges are being filed, so I suspect that someone purchased these seven weapons from the thieves and somehow was caught with them ... Also recovered was an FAL and a Model 8 Remington, a Savage double barrel, two handguns and an 870 Remington.

 

After four years I never expected to ever see any of the guns again.

[jim c 351]

OT,

Congratulations, you were very lucky.

My brother had a 12 gun collection stolen in 1978 and none were ever recovered.

Jim C

[ranger1385]

That's great! Unfortunately, most people do not keep a master list of the weapons they own with serial numbers. We would arrest criminals daily with weapons. When we would run the serial numbers they would not show as stolen. Only after we did ATF trace reports, were we able to determine that the weapons were stolen(FYI, a real pain). Frequently, people would report home burglaries or vehicle burglaries and in the report they would say colt 1911 (unknown serial number). The moral of the story is to keep a list of your weapons and serial numbers in a safe and secure place. FYI, I recovered several weapons which had been reported in the 1970's. Last time I checked, they never remove a stolen firearm from the system unless it is physically recovered.

[timkel]

I remember your original post. Great news!

[Oldtrooper]

That's great! Unfortunately, most people do not keep a master list of the weapons they own with serial numbers. We would arrest criminals daily with weapons. When we would run the serial numbers they would not show as stolen. Only after we did ATF trace reports, were we able to determine that the weapons were stolen(FYI, a real pain). Frequently, people would report home burglaries or vehicle burglaries and in the report they would say colt 1911 (unknown serial number). The moral of the story is to keep a list of your weapons and serial numbers in a safe and secure place. FYI, I recovered several weapons which had been reported in the 1970's. Last time I checked, they never remove a stolen firearm from the system unless it is physically recovered.

I understand exactly what you are saying ... I once took a report of a stolen rifle and it was described to me as "An unknown China gun" I keep meticulous records, and those weapons showing up over NCIC as stolen were identified through the serial numbers.

[muddyboots]

That's a great news. Congratulations!!