If anyone wonders what happens to guns taken away by the police.

[ewrski]

Here is one example...

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/...-theft-644247/

State police arrested Apollo's police chief today on charges that he stole and sold two guns from a residence, two police guns and other equipment purchased with the borough's grant money and pocketed the proceeds.

Paul Breznican Jr. turned himself in to state police and was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge James Andring on felony counts of theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds and a misdemeanor charge of official oppression.

In an affidavit, police said Mr. Breznican illegally confiscated a shotgun and rifle on a suicide check in 2006 and sold the guns to a dealer in Saltsburg 10 days later.

He is also accused of selling one of the department's AR-15 rifles - purchased with federal grant money - and amunition to a Spring Church man two years ago and a .22-caliber rifle, a tear gas gun and a tear gas baton to a dealer in Apollo.

The complaint also states that the Apollo borough council said Mr. Breznican failed to return two items valued at $1,500 to the borough when he was asked to return all police equipment. The criminal complaint lists the items as a dog bite suit and a bail remote door opener.

Mr. Breznican is being held at the Armstrong County Jail on $25,000 bond.

[PA Rifleman]

And another.

Seems like a confiscated Thompson SMG walked from Law Enforcement in West Chester years ago.

WEST CHESTER. Pa. (AP) —
Chester County authorities declined to return five Thompson sub-machine guns confiscated from former gun dealer Loring Hill nearly 30 years ago, saying the guns posed an extreme danger to the citizens of Chester County.
But the ‘weapons were less than secure with the county, ‘which took years to realize one of them was missing — and recently learned that the gun had been stolen and sold to drug dealers in New York.
State police said Friday that a Wells Fargo security guard caught stealing from the county detective bureau in 1987 had stolen the sub-machine gun in 1986.
The former guard, Gregory Arrington told state police he sold the, gun 10 years ago to a pair of drug dealers for $500. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Saturday. the statute or limitation prevents Arrington, 32, from being prosecuted.
Arrington pleaded guilty to burglarizing the detective bureau office on three occasions and taking $ 1,469 In cash and checks, two ounces of marijuana, keys and a pistol. He served 23 1/2 months in prison.
No one asked him if he had taken the gun because no one realized was missing.
The guns were confiscated in 1968 from Hill, a former gun dealer who was charged with illegally selling automatic weapons. He later received a governor’s pardon and his federal firearms license was reinstated in the early 1970s but the county declined to return the weapons.
“I have concluded that the return of these guns would pose an extreme danger to the citizens of Chester County, then-District Attorney James P. MacElree 2nd wrote in a 1985 letter to Hills attorney.
Chester County chief detective Charles Zagorskie first realized a Thompson was missing in 1992.
District Attorney Anthony Sarcione said he learned about the weapons in 1986 when Hill again wrote seeking his property. Sarcione asked state police to take over the investigation when an internal probe failed to turn up the gun.
The last known person to possess the weapon was killed during a robbery in 1989 in Brooklyn, New York” said Capt. Frank Pawlowaki of the state police, which traced the gun's path during Its 10-month investigation.
He declined to tell the newspaper the name of the dead person or whether he was one of the drug dealers Arrington said bought the weapon.
The sub-machine gun remains missing.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...pg=4102,777717

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=1393,1353286

Collector Wants Back His Guns From Police The Missing Pieces: Prized, Capone-era Weapons. They Were Seized In 1968.
March 30, 1997|By Allie Shah and Rich Henson, FOR THE INQUIRER

In the old days of Al Capone, it was known as the ``Chicago typewriter,'' and its rat-a-tat-tat wrote many an obituary for gangsters in the Prohibition era.

These days, ``the gun that made the '20s roar'' is causing a chatter in the Chester County Courthouse.

A .45-caliber antique Thompson submachine gun - of the vintage most prized by collectors - is missing from the arsenal of the Chester County detectives. And the owner of the gun, Loring F. Hill, 56, of Elkins Park, who has been trying to get it back since 1968, wants an explanation.

The disappearance has turned into a ``whodunit'' within the county District Attorney's Office. The state police are investigating and interviewing past and current detectives, prosecutors and others.

Charles Zagorskie, the chief of county detectives, declined to comment on the missing gun.

State Police Lt. Frank Pawlowski, who is heading the investigation, said last week that investigators hadn't established whether the gun, usually kept under lock and key, was lost, misplaced or stolen.

``The Cadillac of submachine guns,'' as one expert calls it, was in its original box and had never been fired when it was taken from Hill in 1968.

At the time, Hill, a former Philadelphia police officer, was a federally licensed gun merchant living in southern Chester County. He was dealing in machine guns with police departments when the state police arrested him for trafficking in automatic weapons.

At his trial, Hill argued that his federal dealer's license allowed him to sell automatic firearms. A county judge ruled that the Pennsylvania law banning the practice superseded Hill's license. Hill was convicted of unlawful trafficking, put on two years' probation and fined $200.

In all, he surrendered 18 weapons, including four Thompsons. He valued the collection at $50,000 in later testimony.

Hill applied for and was granted a pardon by Gov. Milton Shapp in 1975. He successfully petitioned the U.S. Treasury Department to reinstate his firearms license. And he began trying to reclaim his collection.

In a hearing in 1983 before Chester County Judge Leonard Sugerman, District Attorney James Freeman agreed that the guns should be returned to Hill, if the machine guns could be made inoperable. An impasse developed when it turned out that that would destroy their value. The guns were not altered, and the negotiations dragged on.

http://articles.philly.com/1997-03-3...matic-firearms

[glocke12]

lousy thieves.

[father-of-five]

Keep on weeding out the bad guys!