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Jeff, Sounds like you are still in Florida.
Get a copy of the police report on your father's suicide.
There should be a description of the S&W revolver and serial number.
Make your polite inquiries to the agency( Pinnellas Co Sherrifs Dept or whomever and let them know you would like an answer and have your family's property returned today.

IF they stonewall you, call the Florida State police and file a stolen handgun report, naming the agency and investigating officer and high sherrif as suspects with case number referenced.
That'll get the handgun and serial number in NCIC database as 'stolen'.
That should cause a stir..:) Jim

Let us know what you find out. You might try the Florida attorney general's office.

Something just doesn't sound right about this.

I questioned them at the time when they took his holster and the 50 count box of hollow points/six round missing. The homicide detective told me they had to take everything related to the gun...

I was OK with that, keep in mind they were investigating this as a homicide, All they knew at the time for a fact was that they had a dead guy layin beside a secluded bay with a bullet in him and a gun laying beside him...

Whats transpired since is getting a bit much to swallow. In the back of my mind I just keep thinking many people might not pursue retrieving a gun in a case like this and it could open the door for the gun to evaporate within their system..

I've talked to about 6 different individuals with in the Pinellas County Sheriffs Dept. about this now with none of them seeming to want to offer a committed reply to my when and if questions.

If it was taken home by an individual within the department all those guys would have had to been covering for him..maybe..
If that was the case and now that they know I am not going away without the gun it may reappear.. keeping my fingers crossed now.

I think the responses here pretty much clear up any registered or unregistered thoughts I was having...Thanks....

Seriously, call a lawyer, get him involved, they are screwing you around. Les

Jim, you are absolutely evil. Remind me not to piss you off. LOL.

If I find myself heading back to my home in Alaska without this handgun I may very well do something like that. Thanks for the idea. it'd be a good way to vent a little grief...

It may also be the right thing to do if it's MIA. Theft is theft no matter who took it.

Jeff, If you don't already have it, get a copy of the police report.You absolutely need that documentation.

Get the name of the State's Attorney's ...DA.& the numbers.

When speaking with the Pinellas Co folks, speak plainly, slowly and be persistence in getting the answers.

Where is my family property?
I would like it returned to me, legal heir to my father's estate.Today.

Find someone who cannot duck & dodge..The High Sherrif if necessary.

Concerning the filing of a stolen handgun report,
IF you do that, keep your informational ducks in a row and make sure you cover as best you can the events and your inquiries over the past months with the Sherrifs Dept in your attempt to have your family property returned to you in the stolen firearm report..Do it in person would be best.

Just mentioning that you may file the stolen handgun report with the State Police to the Pinellas' Co folks may get better response..or depending on how crooked they are, land you in jail facing bogus disorderly conduct charges..:(..

Play that last card ( or not) where you quietly tell them what you may do IF your property isn't found and restored to you promptly ....by ear & gut..:) Depending on their initial responses to your persistence you'll know whether that may work or is best saved for a blindside on a crooked dept.Good luck..

While a good lawyer may help, you should not have to expend your own money to recover property that is legally your family's.
Jim

some useful numbers and departments for Pinellas Co

http://www.pinellascounty.org/phone.htm

You should have been given a reciept of property when it was taken. You should also have the Name of the investigationg officer in charge. Go to that officer, then up from there, this is an heirloom and PRIVATE PROPERTY. I do not know what the resitration laws are in that state mine has none. When I was working as a Police Detective a firearms siezed as evidence would be returned after any court procedings relivant to it were finished. If the death was ruled a suicide, then they should have no other need for the firearm or any thing else pertaining to it. If however the death was only preliminarily called a suicide and is still an open investigation, that is a differant story. I can tell you that if the state has some registration laws that were not followed they will be examining the firearm ballisticly and compairing it to every unsolved case that they can find where a 357 was used and any ballistics evidence was recovered. That takes a lot of time sometimes. You can go to the District Attorney and ask for a reliese of evidence. That should stop the BS. Any time evidence is siezed, or passed on to another officer or agency it has to be accounted for, signed in and out ect. The scumbag comments are totally uncalled for. Theft from a police evidence lock up is rare and always gets caught up with.

We always give a firearm involved in a suicide to a family member if requested, unless the firearm is previously stolen. Otherwise, a family member can request it and I have never seen one turned down.

Ditto, unless it was used in a crime.

I hade a freind that went through this. Only the executor of the estate has legal claim. Your father got it as part of his fathers estate, or it was given to him before death.

I was pretty much aware of the need of a receipt at the time but emotions were running high, the homicide detective I was working with at the time was really a great guy, I did question him on the items he was taking and he informed me as to who to call and about when to get things returned and gave me his card. I'd called him a couple weeks afterwards and thanked him for his professional manner in dealing with my families case. I really don't think I was being set-up to be ripped-off.

I just tried calling him a few moments ago and just got his voice mail.



Right, something had to have spurred the guy working at the Evidence storage to have made the comment about the lack of registration.



And I think this as well as a bogged down system is what I am up against. Of course the suicide was a preliminarily determination.
They had to have something to put on the death certificate with in 24hr's. It's written as Gunshot Wound of Head and the suicide box is checked. I have a long form copy in my hand.

In the last hour, I have again called a series of numbers in attempt to find if these items are available for release.
I hit a couple quick dead ends and then called the evidence storage with the report# and was told that whatever they may or may not have pertaining to this case are still labeled as evidence and can not be released or even disclosed or discussed. they gave another number of another officer who they said was listed as in charge of this case and that officer would have to call in a release before I could pick my dads things up. they also warmed me that the case could have been turned over to someone else by now.

I called the number they gave me to get the release or find out who they handed the case off to...that officer doesn't work Friday or Saturday.

Another dead end....

This last dead end is what spurred me to call the homicide detective I had worked with to start with on this, as I said I just got his voice mail...



I'll start over on Monday...

I am getting tired of dealing with it, it's stressful, so far I have been able to maintain a level of decency with all I have talked with in person and over the phone. I quit when I know I'm about to tell them FO...

Thanks to all that have replied here today. It's helped to spur me on to try and get what rightfully belongs to my family back.

I've gotten pissed off and left this forum more times than one over the years, but it's nice knowing you guys are always here, I respect ya one and all...even the jerks

call the PO at home... you have waited long enough and if he is a good guy he will understand and shed some much deserved light. if he blows you off then you can start calling some higher ups. they all cant golf

woofer

IF they stonewall you, call the Florida State police and file a stolen handgun report, naming the agency and investigating officer and high sherrif as suspects with case number referenced.
That'll get the handgun and serial number in NCIC database as 'stolen'.
That should cause a stir..:) Jim [/quote]


One agency isn't going to take a stolen report against another agency. It doesn't matter who it's reported to (State Agency) and who is claimed to have stolen it (City/County Agency).

One agency isn't going to take a stolen report against another agency. It doesn't matter who it's reported to (State Agency) and who is claimed to have stolen it (City/County Agency). [/quote]

That "fact" is rather disturbing. Sounds like one hand washing the other. You know, kinda like an internal investigation, or the state legislature being able to vote themselves a raise, or LEO looking out for each other.

Can a police department do no wrong? Are they immune to the laws they enforce?

Now those comments ought to inflame some folks.

I will sit back and see what I stirred up.

Filing it stolen and calling the DA sounds more like a last resort IMHO.

I also would not bother with regular deputies. You may find one that cares about your problem but it is doubtful in my experience.

Go high up and go fast. I believe you said the county is in charge of this case. Get ahold of the Sheriff. Explain everything and make sure he understands that you are dead serious about having this property returned.

In my experience in law enforcement the guy's in charge do not like to be blind sided by problems they know nothing about. And BELIEVE ME, missing property can be a MAJOR problem for a department, whether state, local, or federal. The proverbial schit always rolls down hill and the guys in charge usually see to it.

I am terribly sorry for your loss and sorry that you are having to deal with this situation.

Travis.

If i've read everything as written, the weapon was confiscated due to a homicide investigation, which turned out to be suicide. Procedural errors from my experience, occured due to no property receipt being issued. I am not saying what was done was right, it's doesn't pass the smell test at all. My point was that this is a [b]CIVIL[/b] matter and not a CRIMINAL matter and it needs to be handled from the CIVIL side with an Attorney.

Another LE agency is going to look at it from a civil action and not a criminal intent, the weapon wasn't taken with the intent to deprive the owner of it. It may seem that way now, but that wasn't the original intent.

The agency involved in this is one of the largest in the state of FL. and one of the better known in the nation. I am going to state fact here, it might hurt, but it's fact, a state LE agency isn't going to tell the Sheriff, of this county how to conduct his business, involving the turning over of a handgun.

Another fact, the boardmember who wants the weapon back doesn't have any social or political importance within the county involved. I am not saying that this is correct, it's just fact, and it helps alot to have social/political importance or know someone who does. If the investigator who took this weapon to begin with does have the intent to keep it, he should be punished if that's his intent. I do hope that the boardmember is able to get the weapon back.

And to your question, law enforcement agencies need to be held accountable for the actions of their employees.

I'll take Sam's word on gun registration in FL. That said, it is the property of your father's estate, and it is not evidence in a criminal matter, so it is either due to be returned to anyone handling your father's estate, or his proper heir. The State of FL has no business holding it. Also, if it was obviously a suicide, and didn't happen as his condo, I can't see why it was searched beyind a cursory look for a note, nor why anything would have been taken from some place other than the scene if it didn't relate to the scene or his death.

To the OP...sorry you're having to deal with this, my father took his life in August last year. I didn't want the gun either, even though it was a custom 1911 I'd built. I contacted the gun dealer my dad and I had always done business with, had him send someone to pick it up from the police, and had him clean it up and sell it. Knowing the police in my case made it easier. Contact a lawyer, the one handling any estate if there is one, your family lawyer, or one you know. Good luck.