LugerForum Discussion Forums - Borchard-Luger number 5

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Borchard-Luger number 5 - interesting article

Interesting article about the stolen Borchard-Luger number 5.
Ciao
Mauro
http://www.ice.gov/graphics/internat...edia/luger.htm

;)

Hi Mauro,

This article and entire event was discussed in some detail over 1 year ago on the Forum.

Tragic event...all around.

A few of us LF members were able to see the B-L # 5 in person and even hold it in our hands at the Kansas City gun show and the Reno gun show before the gun was returned to CH...

As I understand, the CH authorities are trying to recover the buyer's money from the folks/family in CH that may have had a hand it is theft and sale to an American advanced collector and luger expert, Mike Krause.

Quote:

Originally posted by Pete Ebbink
This article and entire event was discussed in some detail over 1 year ago on the Forum.

Tragic event...all around.

and as Forest Gump said, "and thats all I'm gonna say about that..."

:D

Recent posting of a Austin, TX write-up on Jan's Gun Board about the B-L # 5 episode :

http://luger.gunboards.com/luger/top...?TOPIC_ID=4773

It is interesting to read of the buyer's actions to bring the pistol into the U.S. If the report is true, the deceptions by the buyer are very problematic:

Quote:

June 2002: The buyer -- whose name federal officials decline to reveal because the investigation is ongoing -- travels to Switzerland to close the deal: $60,000 is the price. He takes the gun, temporarily removes five pieces to lower its value and smuggles the pistol into Germany. The Luger is mixed with two other, cheaper weapons, and its value listed on Customs forms as $5,000.

August 2002: The Luger clears U.S. Customs. The buyer pays the importer and takes it home.

The buyer -- an expert gunsmith who's been on the History and Discovery channels -- starts going to gun shows, discreetly telling people he's got the BL5, showing them the five removed pieces as proof. One of those listening is a fellow collector who will become a confidential informant in the investigation: Mr. X. He's a little obsessive, a little curmudgeonly, a good note-taker. He has digital photos of the gun pieces the buyer was showing around.

Did you see in the news story where it was thought that since the buyer had the original gun in the trunk of his car, (paraphrasing here) he was probably on his way to his shop to make some replicas????

Makes one wonder under what premise the "replicas," if any, would have been presented to the luger collecting/buying public?

This article makes it sound like the "buyer" could simply stamp out replicas like a cookie cutter! Knowing the "buyer" as well as I do, I doubt very much that this was the intention in this whole unfortunate affair. It takes many hours of tooling and fitting to make replicas, not to mention the out of pocket costs involved. Who would pay in excess of 30K for a replica? That the low estimate I have heard to fashion a likeness of the B-L#5.