weagle
Senior Member
Sorry for the long post, but hopefully it will be helpful to some fellow GON members who, like me, have had guns or other property stolen.
Back in October of last year several guns including a Beretta Silver Pigeon 28ga over under were stolen from my truck at work. I knew the chances of ever recovering them were slim, but I wanted to make sure I did everything possible to try to recover them. I wanted to pass along a few things that so far have led to the recovery of 2 out of the 3.
First I immediately reported the guns stolen to the local police and made sure to include as much info about them as possible in the report. Obviously I included the serial numbers, but more importantly, I followed up a few weeks later to make sure they were reported to the NICS data base as stolen. Come to find out that 2 out of the 3 serial numbers were keyed in wrong. I sent a letter and email to the investigator and followed up later to make sure the guns were properly registered as stolen.
Second, I posted on this web site and several others that the guns were stolen along with descriptions.
And finally I began searching the popular "for sale" forums like GON Marketplace and Outdoors Trader for my guns.
In February, I got a call from a local Sheriff's office that they had recovered one of my guns. They had served an unrelated warrant on a parolee and when they discovered the gun in his possession they ran the serial numbers and got a hit on the NICS database. It was one of the guns that was originally entered wrong and had I not sent the correction, it would be sitting in the S.O. property room until they disposed of it.
I continued searching the "for sale" forums for my other guns. Be sure to use the search function to narrow your search but don't be too specific, because you don't how a gun might be listed. For instance I would search on "beretta" and just look at the most recent listings. I would do this about once a week and it only takes a few seconds to check.
The day before yesterday, I searched "beretta" on the GON Marketplace and what pops up but a 28ga Beretta Silver Pigeon I 30" barrels, 2 chokes No box. $1600 and it's in the same part of the state my guns were stolen from. I sent an Inquiry to the seller requesting more details and he sent me the crucial info: His Contact name, phone number and email and he even sent me the serial number which was a match. Bingo!
Called the investigator, forwarded the email reply from the seller and today they handed me back my shotgun
I felt pretty sure the guy selling it had no idea it was stolen as he probably wouldn't have listed it on a public forum and he surely wouldn't have sent me the serial number. I feel bad for him, because what he thought was a great purchase ended up just costing him money. He provided the name and number of the guy he bought it from and the investigator was able to track it back through 2 more sellers. It had changed hands at least 3 times after the initial theft.
So for you guys out there who have had guns stolen, keep trying. You make be able to recover them. And for you guys who like to buy and trade guns like I do, be very careful if you are buying from a stranger. He may be 2 or three owners removed from a theft, but if the gun you buy turns up stolen you will out of your money and the gun.
Back in October of last year several guns including a Beretta Silver Pigeon 28ga over under were stolen from my truck at work. I knew the chances of ever recovering them were slim, but I wanted to make sure I did everything possible to try to recover them. I wanted to pass along a few things that so far have led to the recovery of 2 out of the 3.
First I immediately reported the guns stolen to the local police and made sure to include as much info about them as possible in the report. Obviously I included the serial numbers, but more importantly, I followed up a few weeks later to make sure they were reported to the NICS data base as stolen. Come to find out that 2 out of the 3 serial numbers were keyed in wrong. I sent a letter and email to the investigator and followed up later to make sure the guns were properly registered as stolen.
Second, I posted on this web site and several others that the guns were stolen along with descriptions.
And finally I began searching the popular "for sale" forums like GON Marketplace and Outdoors Trader for my guns.
In February, I got a call from a local Sheriff's office that they had recovered one of my guns. They had served an unrelated warrant on a parolee and when they discovered the gun in his possession they ran the serial numbers and got a hit on the NICS database. It was one of the guns that was originally entered wrong and had I not sent the correction, it would be sitting in the S.O. property room until they disposed of it.
I continued searching the "for sale" forums for my other guns. Be sure to use the search function to narrow your search but don't be too specific, because you don't how a gun might be listed. For instance I would search on "beretta" and just look at the most recent listings. I would do this about once a week and it only takes a few seconds to check.
The day before yesterday, I searched "beretta" on the GON Marketplace and what pops up but a 28ga Beretta Silver Pigeon I 30" barrels, 2 chokes No box. $1600 and it's in the same part of the state my guns were stolen from. I sent an Inquiry to the seller requesting more details and he sent me the crucial info: His Contact name, phone number and email and he even sent me the serial number which was a match. Bingo!
Called the investigator, forwarded the email reply from the seller and today they handed me back my shotgun
I felt pretty sure the guy selling it had no idea it was stolen as he probably wouldn't have listed it on a public forum and he surely wouldn't have sent me the serial number. I feel bad for him, because what he thought was a great purchase ended up just costing him money. He provided the name and number of the guy he bought it from and the investigator was able to track it back through 2 more sellers. It had changed hands at least 3 times after the initial theft.
So for you guys out there who have had guns stolen, keep trying. You make be able to recover them. And for you guys who like to buy and trade guns like I do, be very careful if you are buying from a stranger. He may be 2 or three owners removed from a theft, but if the gun you buy turns up stolen you will out of your money and the gun.
