When the gun you bought turns out to have been stolen

[Gaucho Gringo]

I wish I could get back the guns that were stolen from my folk's house 47 years ago when I was 19 and still living there. My folks and sister were on vacation and I left the house for an hour and when I came back it had been broken into and the handguns were gone. Never have heard anything about them. One was a 1911 which would probably be worth $10-15,000 today. There was also a HS double nine and a H&R top break .32. All the long guns were untouched even though they were in the same area.

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

"what python?"

 

[Hawaiian]

Many years ago, I purchased a recovered/stolen gun from an insurance co. my friend worked for.
He told me that recovered stolen property that the insurance co. paid for on a claim is then the property of the ins. co. They first offer it back to their policy holder for what was paid on the claim. If the owner turns down that offer, the ins. co. sells the item. Often the owner used the insurance $ to replace the item and does not need another one. This applies to guns, jewelry, watches, etc.

 

[HB of CJ]

Once stolen always stolen? WTF? What if a sheriff's agency recovers or seizes a stolen firearm but can not or does not establish a paper trail? A non traceable firearm? Then the good guy sheriff auctions off the firearm. Our sheriff does this. Josephine County Oregon. Or at least the prior sheriffs did.

You buy the gun from the sheriff. Are you buying a stolen gun? Well yes. The sheriff recovered the gun from what ever or whom ever. But now the sheriff is selling the gun. You buy it. Does the sheriff provide a bill of sale? Yes. But ... does that make the gun stolen or non stolen? I still do not understand.

Or ... is it a case of prior ownership being established or determined? If so, then stolen? If non traceable then non stolen? Humm.

Respectfully.

 

[bikemutt]

Why didn't the pawn shop run the S#? I'll bet if they had it would have verified as stolen.

The gun dealer in this case, Pinto's in Renton, is not a pawnshop. Pawnshops in WA have to abide by an entirely different set of rules when it comes to items they take on trade or pawn, including holding onto items for 30 days, letting police know about said items so they (the police) can check to see if the items have been reported stolen, etc.

This particular gun store is a marketplace member; they buy, consign and sell, they aren't the police. Imagine if eBay had to "run" everything on their website in order to determine if the items had been reported stolen.