My Dad was in a long line of mixed service soldiers waiting to board ships in Cherbourg harbor at the end of the war. He had a CZ pistol on him he took from a surrendering Panzer officer while he was a camp guard there at Cherbourg, which had surrender paperwork . As a radio gunner in B-24s prior to his guard duty, he had pinched the M1A1 carbine from the bomber's radio room. He planned to take both home.
A jeep with a loudspeaker cruised the entire length of the line of soldier's spouting the same warnings about contraband, etc. Apparently, they were much more concerned about US goverment gear than captured stuff. Dad threw the carbine over a bakery's wall, along with hundreds of GIs getting rid of their stuff. They were never checked once aboard and made it all the way home with no more mentions of contraband. The guys with the big cojones got their stuff back and those who followed the rules got skunked.
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