![]() |
A bit of unbelievable news today
So, I know I haven't posted on here in a while but I got some news today that I thought you gentlemen may appreciate. About 25 years ago my house was broken into I was a new collector at that time 16 years old and some so-called friends broke into my home and stole a couple of pieces of my fledgling collection.
Two of the pieces stolen were a matching 1936 S/42 Luger and a matching BYF P.38 ( the year escapes me). My mother got a phone call today from an ATF agent stating that my pistols have been locked up in an evidence locker since 1996 the scum bag that had them was convicted of murder and my property had been forgotten about. Tomorrow at 10 Am the ATF agent is supposed to return them to me. I am hoping they are at least close to the condition that they were when they were stolen from me but I am not holding my breath. It's good to know that they will be back in my hands again tomorrow though I will post pictures after I get them back |
Miracles do happen!!
|
I cant help but feeling skeptical that the ATF would just hand them over
|
If they have a police record of being your guns, then I don't see why they wouldn't be returned.
Keep us informed and go buy a powerball :) Good news! |
Great news indeed! What a wonderful story. Keep us posted when they are returned... and pictures would be appreciated.
|
Walter
First of all thanks for sharing the good news, hope those pistols have been kept properly, in any case please keep us posted! Kind regards. |
Congrats on your miracle. Looking forward to seeing the first photos of your long lost guns. Hopefully they were in a controlled environment. Just think how much they will have appreciated in value over the years! Please keep us informed of your progress and post photos when you get them.
|
Yeah today is the day. I am not holding my breath on them being in good shape
The funny thing is that this was the first luger and P.38 i ever owned. So its kind of neat to think that they will be mine again I was a novice at the time and i believe the luger may have been Restored. Cant wait to have them back. |
Wow tha is pretty cool, congrats!
|
Hopefully no property markings were applied by over zealous police!
|
1 Attachment(s)
Okay they were dropped off at my Mothers house.
She took this picture and sent to me. They look pretty promising so far. Minus the tape that was used to attach the magazines to the guns. Ill take higher resolution photos tonight or tomorrow. I might need tonight alone with them to welcome them home. |
Amazing, hopefully the tape didn't discolor the bluing...
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
You're not seeing the tape. It's around the grips. |
20 years? CRAZY!
|
Some times, it is just your day, and today was yours. The whole forum is very happy for you, and nice to know that the scumbag that stole them is in prison!! :jumper:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
So i have them back and they are in great condition!!
They were stolen on May 29th 1990. I also got the police report along with the pistols. I am having problems loading photos tonight But i will post a couple tomorrow. I am a very lucky guy today |
25 years now! The wheels of justice grind very slowly.
|
That's wonderful! :thumbup: That tape should come off easy, then you wipe the residue off with some Goo Gone, clean, oil and they'll hopefully look like nothing ever happened.
On a side note: I wen't to the Sheriff's auction a couple of months ago, and much to my surprise they had a whole bunch of WWII guns. You'll usually find Ravens, Rossis and other guns you don't want, so I asked a deputy what was up with that. He said that there was a new law (or maybe it was just new to them :rolleyes: ) saying that they can only hold guns for so long, so they had to get rid of a load of "oldtimers". Unfortunately, they must have been stored in a damp basement or something, because most of the guns had deteriorated quite a bit. According to the deputy, some of them had been in storage since the '70s or '80s, and it showed. Not only were they deteriorated, it also seemed like the staff had been helping themselves to a lot of mags, grips and other parts. I didn't count, but I would guesstimate that 50% of the grips and maybe 75% of the magazines were gone. :mad: It made me wonder if there are more treasure troves hidden in the law enforcement offices around the country, just waiting to be auctioned off in the near future? (And yes: A few of the guns did follow me home) |
Quote:
|
Quote:
I'm looking forward to hear the end of the story now. |
3 Attachment(s)
Quote:
|
3 Attachment(s)
Ok Here are some down and dirty pics of them after i cleaned them up and got the adhesive tape off.
I will do a more thorough thread on the S/42 Luger at a later time. I still think it is an old restoration but would like to confirm with you guys, As for the p.38 is is absolutely right as rain. |
3 Attachment(s)
the p.38
|
Wow... Seems like your PD had a better storage room than the Putnam County Sheriff's office! It's almost unbelievable that they made it through all those years without damage! :thumbup:
|
walter
Great, I'm ever so happy for you! Thanks a lot for sharing with us, and by the way beautiful guns! Kind regards. |
Wayne8661, those pistols look great (to my untrained eye)! So happy for you and thanks again for sharing your feel good story.
|
Quote:
|
Happy as this ending is, one still wonders why no efforts were made by the PD since 1996 to return stolen property.
|
Well there was a logical explanation i spoke with the ATF agent today. It sucks it took so long
Bur i wrote these two guns off years ago and it was a gift to get them back. I still lost my grandfathers .32 S&W and a couple of german daggers. Its a win for me and i am not angry With law enforcement at all. I received a copy of all police records along woth them and they worked their asses off to try and find them. |
Something "a bit" similar occured to me many years ago, when at 2 o'clock in the morning a couple of burglars tried to get inside my house, my Belgian Shepherd Dog barking probably scared them away, but my mistake was to shoot them with my S&W 28, just two rounds of 357 Mag. but I've never seen any other burglar since that day!
Still one of the rounds ended in the sitting room of a neighbour more than 400 yards away. The police that came later confiscated my revolver and I remained without it for about 4/5 months. I made a big mistake shooting towards them while they were escaping, but in the end I was very lucky as everything ended well. Anyway at least they took care of my revolver, and when it was returned to me didn't present any signs of a bad storage. |
Quote:
|
... if I had used a 12 gauge by now I would be writing to you from my jail cell ...
|
Quote:
|
It is very interesting that the ATF had custody of these firearms. The ATF doesn't investigate murders, so it makes me wonder why they were in their evidence room. Normally they would be held for evidence at trial by the agency or department that investigated the murder. If they were sent to the ATF lab for some sort of testing they would have, upon completion been returned to that department.
If the case was ajudicated about 20 years ago, why were they not returned to the rightful owner (hayhugh), unless they were being held until the killer's many appeals were exhausted. Obviously someone in AFT did an inventory of the evidence room and realized they still had the guns and tracked down hayhugh's family. Based upon hayhugh's explanation as to who originally stole his guns, just shows the unintentional consequences of a simple burglary conducted by a couple of teenager "friends" who knew he had these firearms in his house and later must have sold them "on the street", until they ended up in the killers hands. heyhugh didn't state the burglars were the shooters. What are the chances that these two pistols staying together all of the years they were on the street? You would be surprised how many stolen firearms, when recovered, often in far away places, are returned to their rightful owner many years later by law enforcement agencies. Some never get returned, because the owners, who often inherit them from family, forgot to record the serial numbers, resulting in the info not getting into the police report and therefor never submitted to NCIC. In this case hayhugh must have written down not only the serial number, but the letter suffix for both guns and the years they were made. If you run the just numbers for a P 08 or P 38 w/o the letter suffix, you normally get 4-6 hits or more reporting "that gun" being stolen all over the US over many years. Most owners think only to record the actual numbers and they often unaware of the importance of the suffix or just can't read it. Police officers taking the complaint are unfamiliar with the German military system of numbering guns, so they don't realize the value of the suffix. All 3 pieces of info are needed to be in the police report, serial number, letter suffice and year, if you have any hope of ever seeing your stolen Luger, P-38 or 98k again. This really is a great story with a happy (delayed) ending. Congrats hayhugh. Joe |
The guns in this article belonged to :wayne8661 Not hayhugh.........
|
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:31 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 1998 - 2025, Lugerforum.com