Ed;
The warrant was a legal warrant for a felon, but a typo had the wrong address. I lived at Firwood Dr. and the warrant should have read FireEwood Dr. They left off an "E" and this resulted in the wrong house being searched.
I fumed about this to my atty. who, while sympathetic, said that if my main goal was to get the weapon back, then I plead out to the HCOI charge and I could get the weapon returned when I got the HCOI card.
If I didn't want the weapon back, then I could fight city hall to my heart's content, but the weapon would be gone.
Since I didn't care to have the city cops in possession of a weapon that was traceable back to me, since I bought it new and filled out the yellowsheet, I put Constitutional rights on hold in preference for expediency.
(During the seizure, the cops handed me a form stating I was VOLUNTARILY surrendering the handgun, and told me to sign it. When I retorted that I was VOLUNTARILY doing nothing of the kind, and no, I did NOT have to sign the release, things got a little testy. Cops, I learned, don't like to have their authority questioned.) (duh!)
(Full disclosure: have a brother-in-law who is a cop in a major metro force. Also worked on newspapers long enough to realize that cops, the majority of the time, do an exemplary job under very trying conditions. Having said that, if you push back, expect more than a nudge in return.)
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