When I am in my office I keep the police radio on all the time. I like to listen to the calls as they are dispatched and the activity of the officers.
Today we had an interesting call. A person called to let us know that in a business parking lot they had observed a car parked near theirs that had a pistol lying on the console in plain view. They called because they were worried that the window could be broken and the pistol stolen. When the officer arrived she confirmed the observation. Dispatch contacted the registered owner of the car who confirmed that he was the owner of the pistol. He didn’t see any problem with where he left the weapon. He didn’t break any law so there was nothing we could do but leave it there.
We have had increasing contact with people and guns. Many times they are unregistered or stolen guns and we come across them when we are investigating crimes.
We recommend that people not increase the chance that they will become a victim of theft by leaving valuables in plain sight in vehicles. In particular guns should be reasonably secured because the chances are high that a stolen gun will be used in the commission of crime by persons not permitted to have guns lawfully.
This post was originally published on March 9, 2016 on Director Olko’s blog.
