Tweet
Okay, I have received a few PMs asking what I mean in that portion of my signature block that reads Sig P230 (stolen by fullerton PD) so here's the skinny on what happened that fatal Christmas Eve.
Parked on a main blvd in fullerton on christmas eve night (circa 1990's) waiting for the girlfriend to get home from midnight mass. it's about 12:40a I'm sitting in my car smoking a cig (tobacco) when a fullerton pd car pulls up behind me. He gets out asks what im doing and i tell him ( I understand the guy may think im a look out or some other character up to no good, casing the apt complex or something...i get it that's their job). He asks for the GF's name and phone to verify I know someone there, he sees my car packed with wrapped gift boxes (which is what I was there to drop off). He asks why Im wearing gloves me: "because it's 48 degrees out" he asks what that flashlight is doing in my car (back seat floor board) me: "it's my flashlight I carry in my car for emergencies and the like" (car was a hatchback so no trunk). He checks out the gift tags on the boxes and sees they all have "from: my name" which naturally matches my driver's license.
He asks me to step out and sit on the curb and he goes through the car. Now rewind to approx 1:00pm earlier that day. While out last minute gift buying I went to the gunsmith to pick up my P230 that was being serviced, got the receipt, put the gun & receipt in the glove box (NO BULLETS ANYWHERE IN THE CAR, ON ME ETC NO BULLETS PERIOD) then locked it and continued with my day out & about visiting & shopping winding up at the GF's apt at 12:40a.
So back to me on the curb. I hear him pull the keys out of the ignition, open the glove box then I think holy crap the gun! But im not worried because there are no bullets anywhere. I hear him rack the gun, he comes out and asks "what's this" so I explain (see above) and tell him look at the receipt you can see it's dated today and there aren't any bullets. Well he doesnt care so off i go to fullerton PD jail. I ask to speak to a supervisor who does come to me and I explain that gun was being carried legally and to please look up the code that references how a gun should be carried in a car in the state of Calif. He does and they kick me loose. Of course I had my car impounded and my gun impounded so it was an expensive evening. I go back 3 days later to get my gun from their custody and the run-around begins, first with "we can't find it" and it went on from there. After a number of letters and calls to the powers that be in fullerton PD I got a big fat NOTHING (we're talking 2 months now).
Being a good law abiding citizen of this country I exercised my right to sue and took fullerton PD to small claims court for the cost of the gun. Long story longer, I got back my $450 for the gun PLUS, and i thought it would be a long shot but what the hell, I recovered my cost for the impounding of my car PLUS the cop and the PD got a good tongue lashing from the judge (something about not excercising proper judgement and being intrusted with the pulblic's trust etc) - SWEET VICTORY. After telling the story to a few cop friends the concensus is that some cop kept that nice, new (less than 75 rounds) sig for himself, it certainly would not have been destroyed like some $50 throw-away gun.
And that folks is how the statement "stolen by fullerton PD" came to be.
Thanks for listening.
Parked on a main blvd in fullerton on christmas eve night (circa 1990's) waiting for the girlfriend to get home from midnight mass. it's about 12:40a I'm sitting in my car smoking a cig (tobacco) when a fullerton pd car pulls up behind me. He gets out asks what im doing and i tell him ( I understand the guy may think im a look out or some other character up to no good, casing the apt complex or something...i get it that's their job). He asks for the GF's name and phone to verify I know someone there, he sees my car packed with wrapped gift boxes (which is what I was there to drop off). He asks why Im wearing gloves me: "because it's 48 degrees out" he asks what that flashlight is doing in my car (back seat floor board) me: "it's my flashlight I carry in my car for emergencies and the like" (car was a hatchback so no trunk). He checks out the gift tags on the boxes and sees they all have "from: my name" which naturally matches my driver's license.
He asks me to step out and sit on the curb and he goes through the car. Now rewind to approx 1:00pm earlier that day. While out last minute gift buying I went to the gunsmith to pick up my P230 that was being serviced, got the receipt, put the gun & receipt in the glove box (NO BULLETS ANYWHERE IN THE CAR, ON ME ETC NO BULLETS PERIOD) then locked it and continued with my day out & about visiting & shopping winding up at the GF's apt at 12:40a.
So back to me on the curb. I hear him pull the keys out of the ignition, open the glove box then I think holy crap the gun! But im not worried because there are no bullets anywhere. I hear him rack the gun, he comes out and asks "what's this" so I explain (see above) and tell him look at the receipt you can see it's dated today and there aren't any bullets. Well he doesnt care so off i go to fullerton PD jail. I ask to speak to a supervisor who does come to me and I explain that gun was being carried legally and to please look up the code that references how a gun should be carried in a car in the state of Calif. He does and they kick me loose. Of course I had my car impounded and my gun impounded so it was an expensive evening. I go back 3 days later to get my gun from their custody and the run-around begins, first with "we can't find it" and it went on from there. After a number of letters and calls to the powers that be in fullerton PD I got a big fat NOTHING (we're talking 2 months now).
Being a good law abiding citizen of this country I exercised my right to sue and took fullerton PD to small claims court for the cost of the gun. Long story longer, I got back my $450 for the gun PLUS, and i thought it would be a long shot but what the hell, I recovered my cost for the impounding of my car PLUS the cop and the PD got a good tongue lashing from the judge (something about not excercising proper judgement and being intrusted with the pulblic's trust etc) - SWEET VICTORY. After telling the story to a few cop friends the concensus is that some cop kept that nice, new (less than 75 rounds) sig for himself, it certainly would not have been destroyed like some $50 throw-away gun.
And that folks is how the statement "stolen by fullerton PD" came to be.
Thanks for listening.
Comment