Vintage lost gun returned
BobJudy
Member Posts: 6,633 ✭✭✭✭
Well it wasn't vintage when it was stolen from me in 1989. In fact it was only a year old at the time it went missing. Guess that means I qualify as vintage also.
On the way to one of her volunteer gigs yesterday Judy stopped to empty our P.O. box. She gave me a call and asked why the Flint police department would be sending me a letter. She said she would wait for me to open it when she got home. Turns out it was a letter/notice from their property room and they had a shotgun of mine that had been stolen in 1989. Not expecting much, I went to the Flint P.D. and picked it up this morning. You know it is going to be a good day when you go to Flint, Michigan and don't get mugged or carjacked.
When the clerk let me into the entrance to the property room, I immediately saw my, now old, Winchester 101 field that I haven't laid eyes on in 33 years. It's in a little better shape than I expected. No cracks in the wood, just a lot of small compression marks that will steam out. Different choke tubes than what was in it when stolen, IC/Mod instead of Skeet/Skeet. No major scratches in the blueing, just a couple of small spots of freckling. The bottom barrel doesn't appear to work, and yes I know about resetting the gun so it must be an internal problem. It seems that I now have another project to add to my list - bringing this old girl back to life.
The only info the super nice property clerk lady had was that it was shipped to them from a law enforcement office in Presque Isle. Michigan. For those that don't know, that is near the top of Michigan's lower peninsula on the shores of Lake Huron. From the location and the changing of the chokes as well as the overall condition I think someone's been hunting with it the last 33 years. Definitely not a gang banger or drug house gun. Sorry for the long post, but I am a bit gobsmacked that I am the new/old owner of a gun I gave up on ever seeing again more than a 1/4 century ago. Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket! Bob
Comments
Dont forget to send the insurance money back!
I'm happy for you Bob, not many stolen items get returned to their original owners. Them 101's are nice shotguns.
Seems strange that Presque Isle didn't notify you. Any explanation for that --- county to county?
That's awesome. Save your money for repairs, I'm sure it will be a better return than lottery tickets.
I'm surprised that they paid for shipping & that you didn't have to go to Presque Isle. +++
Well, now the cops know you're armed. You win some, you lose some. And you lose some when you win some, I guess.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Haven't the foggiest. Someone there may have tried to contact me but their contact info would have been almost 30 years out of date because that is when I got the hell outa Flint. I gave the Flint P.D. an address update when I moved but somehow that didn't make it into my records. The Flint clerk when she got it had to look me up in their old paper files and do some sleuthing with the Secretary of State to find me. She went way above and beyond what my local civil servant expectations are. I have to give her Kudos for her extra effort. Bob
Cool story. Congrats on your new/old gun.
Thanks Joe. We don't get that many stories with a happy , if super delayed, ending around here sometimes so I thought I would share. Bob
What do you mean, the bottom barrel doesn't work? The ejector,or the trigger? @BobJudy
Now that is a happy ending.
You faired far better than I when they found my stolen pickup.
That 101 is probably worth more than my pickup is.
Mule
That is wonderful!
Haven't removed the stock yet but the trigger has no tension when set for bottom barrel. Top barrel, the trigger acts normal with tension and then after the sear breaks no tension. Bottom barrel no tension and no sear break. Either full of crud or something broken. After cocking and setting it to fire bottom first I get nothing. Set to fire the top first and it goes bang but still no action on the bottom barrel. I'll get into it in a couple of days and figure out what it is or isn't doing. Bob
Forgot to add, I don't know if that ejector works or not yet because it is actuated by the trigger. If the trigger doesn't trip the ejector is just an extractor.
Ah, I see. I've never had the pleasure of shooting a O/U and didn't understand what didn't work. Thanks for explaining. Let us know what you find when you open it up.
Congratulations. It's rare anymore that you hear about a good news story about a firearm. 😊
Joe
My guess Bob took it for a boat ride as a treat for it's return and it jumped overboard. Now he has no Wnichester 101.
Glad to hear this. Very fortunate some anti-gun cops did not cut it up. I think most if not all of the 'buyback' guns are destroyed.
I would guess a shotgun like that is not classed as "evil".
If it was I can almost hear the grinder.
Good for you on the Winchester. Haven't been to Flint in forty years and no plans in the future.
One of my friends had an old superposed Browning stolen.He found it in a pawn shop about a year later and proved to the pawnshop owner that he was the rightful owner.He was a big turkey hunter and that was his turkey gun and it was almost open season.He made a deal with the pawnshop owner to buy the gun back for what the pawnshop owner paid for it because if law enforcement got involved,they would impound the gun for evidence and he wouldn't have it for turkey season.
What a great ending to that story!
Great story....thanks for sharing !!
I always hated that term "buyback" as if the government owned all the guns first before they let us have them for a while.
A little different story from getting back a couple of riles from the county storage facility......
I had a former employee, good kid. he was signed up for the army awaiting his induction. He had worked for me for about a year and i knew he was a good kid and interested in firearms. I had loaned him an old SKS and a Colt SP-2 to shoot and play with. he had them for a couple of months and used them on the weekends.
He lived in Vancouver WA. one evening he was "cleaning" the SKS and had an accidental discharge.
The round left his apartment through a sliding glass door and stopped in a phone connection box. Neighbors called the local Sherriff, rightly so. Both rifles were confiscated. He told them that they were mine and he was borrowing them from me.
County prosecutor wanted to charge him with something like reckless endangerment or something like.
His recruiter got involved and somehow smoothed things over with the locals. He was sworn in and ended up going to Iraq and serving proudly. This left me with two rifles in the Clark county evidence facility. With several discussions and letters to the county prosecutor's office they finally agreed to give my rifles back.
Come around to 14 months later. I was finally allowed to go pick up my two rifles from the storage facility.
Filled out a 4473 for background ,when the clerk brought me my rifles she was rather crabby and said "we dont usually give these back"
Guess i was lucky to be able to retrieve them. I am also lucky that no significant harm was done with them.
Just remember no good deed goes unpunished
Congrats on getting your shotgun back and I hope you get it in working condition