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The situation has been finalized�..sorta..

First a quick recap�.

Last September father took his life with a 357 S&W and the police took the gun, a holster and a few assorted items into their custody as evidence.
Since that time I have been attempting to retrieve these personal belongings with no avail. I�d just been blown off and pushed aside with a slew of unexplainable excuses as to why they still needed to hold these items or why it was not in their possession due to being checked out of evidence by whom now they tell me was the FBI.. (this was for the trigger pull test..blah, blah, blah.)

During my first few posts in this thread, I made another attempt to get these items (the gun) released from evidence so I could pick it up. Again they gave me more hurdles to leap. With the gun still being listed as �evidence� it could not be released. I had to contact the officer whose name was on the file that originally entered the gun into evidence. I made a series of calls and was able to leave a message for that officer to either call me back or call in a release. I also called this officer�s supervisor, leaving the same message and I contacted the lead detective that was on the scene at the time also only leaving a message. That same day I also called �general council� with the sheriffs department and actually got to talk to a individual that said they would look into the situation and contact me within 48 hours�

It was well over a week later and I had not been contacted by any of these people but I saw this thread pop back up on the front page here, I suppose that was the 12th when Hoot pulled it out of the prior weeks archives. Thanks Hoot, it kinda hit that if you guys were still on it I�d better go after it again.

I was tempted to go to the sheriffs department once again so I could look them face to face since they weren�t returning my calls but it�s not so easy.
I�m 125 miles from their office, its really pizzed me when I've made trips there before only to be blown off in person. So again I called all the same numbers starting with Property and Evidence to see if the release had been called in. Notta� Same deal with the officers and detectives, no contact other than voice mail. I did manage to get a hold of the same chick at the �general council� number, she said she needed to make another contact and she would call me back��another week passed�

I started calling again yesterday, I called her first.
She claimed to have been trying to call me but always found my line busy..I'm often out, my answering machine is always on�.

She went on to give me the information I was in need of.. She told me I was going to have to get a release form from them, fill it out and get my fathers notarized signature on it�.

I popped, it was the first time I was very nice about my pursuit. I reminded her that my father had killed himself with this gun and it would rather difficult to get his dammed signature let alone notarized.. I didn�t exactly say it that way�..

She apologized and said she would call me right back�

I told her I wasn�t hanging up, she could call who ever she had to and just put me on hold. To make an already to long of a story a little shorter� they will accept a release form with my mothers notarized signature.. It was like pulling teeth to get this far.
I'll go down tomorrow and see if this works..

I guess the moral of the story is you need to an azzhole from the get-go to get anywhere, being nice just doesn�t pay..

Thanks for all the input and motivation you guys have offered in your replies��.

Good for you! Let us know when you have all your stuff in hand.

Good luck Jeff. Hope it all works out.

There is no handgun registration in Florida. Just cops being full of shyt as usual. The gun passed from your grandfather to his legal heirs per stirpes when he died and from your father to you or legal heirs. Unless of course the gun was specifically willed to someone else in the LWT of either, if their was one.

Edit: Sorry, see you finally got this resolved. Good for you.

That's been my experience--especially with any bureaucracy.

Let us know when you have it back in hand.

BTW - if they give you any schit, or ask you to "register" the S&W tomorrow, have an attorney on the phone IMMEDIATELY!

Also, be sure to get a copy of the police reports, a full chain of evidence, and file complaints with the local CLEO and the AGs office.

Good advice from VAnimrod - this has gone on too long.

Well, I did all the BS that was requested and got it back this morning...

S&W 686 357 mag...

It's heading back to Alaska with me by days end tomorrow.
Thanks for all the help and advice...........

Glad you got that back.

mercy, miss percy what a hassle ...

As above. And it's nice that the holster is there.

Nice Piece, just gotta get past that the revolver didn't kill your dad, your Dad did...shoot straight and always remember windage and elevation....you'll do great. Good on ya.

Glad you got it back.

257, this may be splitting hairs but I doubt that it is a case of getting past what we all already know. The gun is just a reminder of what happened. At least that's my take on it.

That is a common mistake, and few will clear the error. Been dealing in guns in Fl. for 41 years as a shop owner and now just do pistolsmithing, I have to keep current in today's climate of trying to shut down dealers & 'smiths by the BATFE for the most minor & frivolous discrepancies.

Sorry I came on so strong, I just hate it when people get fooled like you did.

I am certainly glad you stuck it out and got it back. I doesn't matter what you do with it now, it is the whole dang principle of the ordeal.

Did you ever find out who the mystery "agency" was that was supposedly checking the trigger pull? What a bunch of carp, no wonder cops have so much stress. Keeping all those lies straight is quite tiring.

God bless and give those bears heck!

Well I really appreciated your comments, remember my first question was on Florida law regarding handguns. The cops comment to me about the lack of registration left me wondering if some obscure, godforsaken Florida law was going to prohibit me from ever getting the gun back. You as well as others more than convinced me there was nothing legally blocking it from happening.

In all honesty, I was looking for a reason not to pursue the situation any further if odds were it wasn't gonna happen. Yourself, as well as many other here gave the the info and that little extra push I needed at the time and for that I am grateful.




The lawyer with the Pinellas County Sheriffs Office I ended dealing with said it was the FBI. Originally, the officer over at their "property and evidence" office had quoted me another term that had left me thinking it was a federal agency but not FBI, I'd of remembered that.
The evidence bag that contained the gun had been cut open and resealed, you can see the additional tape on the right hand side of the bag in the image above. There is a date written over the tape which I am assuming was the date it was re-sealed. There is also a couple of notes on the bag that contain an earlier date, I'm guessing that was when it had been checked out by "whom-ever".
The bag the holster was in had no notes and had only been sealed once.
So that kinda coincides with what I had been told when I went in to try and pick it up a few months ago and found it was gone.



I had never seen this gun before and other than being told by the homicide detective it was a S&W 357 I really didn't know anything of it, it'd been tagged, bagged and whisked away before I'd showed up on the scene the morning of my fathers passing. I recall my dad telling me he had went out with his father and bought him a 357 to have around the house. When his father died some years back, obviously my dad had gained possession of the gun. Dad and I both have owned a lot of firearms over the years and we never really played a lot of show-n-tell or nothing.

I didn't know how I was going to feel about having this particular gun around. On the way over to get it this morning I kinda thought as soon as I tossed it in the truck to bring it home I'd be wondering why I even picked it up.

I just set and tore it down and cleaned it up, ...it's a nice handgun...and stainless to boot!!:-) I've never been one to entertain a lot of drama in matters like this. I can already tell I'm gonna hang onto this gun, hell it was my granddads and my dads, I doubt I'll ever part with it.........

Funny, you can never tell just what effect something like this will have until the time comes that your holding it your hand...

I hate to admit it, but it sounds like someone (someone in the po-po agency) had or had designs on procuring this gun for themselves at a steal. I've never heard of such BS. Like I said my father did the same in August, I had the gun in hand 3 days after the fact with one signature for receipt. I even had someone else pick it up. I know that part was helped by the fact that I knew everyone involved, but still, they had no such red-tape in place to begin with. Once there's a determination there's no criminal prosecution, there's no "evidence" to hold.

Glad it worked out, sorry it took so long.

I�m not one to be a conspiracy theorists myself�..But�



This is what I am reading on the evidence bag as the probable date it was checked out�.




This would be the probable date it was re-sealed�..The FDLE is most likely who they had told me had checked out the gun�.Just noticed that when I snapped this image�.That�s �Florida Department of Law Enforcement� That sealing tape is different from the original��.

It does sorta look like someone took it somewhere for Christmas�

I'm sure thats just a coincidence:-)

Yep, that is the State Lab. There was no Federal crime thus the FBI would not be involved.