Finders Weepers, Losers Keepers: Law Lands Heavy on Gun Discoverer

[XLFD]

Before you read further, consider what you might do if you went to a public bathroom in a supermarket and found a gun lying on the toilet paper dispenser.  Thinking it might be a toy, you pick it up and figure out that it's a real gun, fully loaded.   Realizing your fingerprints are now all over this gun that may have been used for the commission of crime, what do you do?  Read what happened to a northern Michigan man from Kalkaska who had that happen to him, and now faces up t ten years in jail.

 

 

KALKASKA, MI -- Timothy Flanagan wasn’t quite sure what to think when he walked into a bathroom at the Family Fare in Kalkaska and found a gun sitting on a toilet paper dispenser.

At first, he thought it was a toy, and then he picked it up. The weight told a different story: It was real and loaded, Flanagan realized. He removed the contents and placed it in his pocket before walking across the store to the pharmacy line.

Flanagan said he didn’t want it to end up in the wrong hands, but showing it to an employee didn’t seem right either.

“It just didn’t seem like a good call to pull this out at the cash register. Everyone would have been hitting the ground,” he said.

That was on May 20.

Flanagan, 49, of Fife Lake in Grand Traverse County, placed the gun inside a briefcase in a barn on his property the next day. It remained there for about six weeks, “locked up” and safe, he said.

As it turned out, the weapon belonged to a Michigan State Police trooper from the Wayland Post.

Flanagan had the gun for about six weeks, until a deputy responded to his home for what he called a separate incident. The deputy learned of the gun from Flanagan’s wife and ran the serial code in a computer system — it matched with the trooper’s missing firearm.

Flanagan now is facing charges in Kalkaska County Circuit Court of larceny of a firearm and receiving and concealing a firearm. The case is set for trial in December.

He questions why he should be facing criminal penalties when he believes it was the trooper who acted negligently.

 

“Where’s the last time someone saw an ad or a billboard that said what to do if you find a gun?” Flanagan said.

The trooper had been up north and left the gun, which Flanagan described as a .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson, in the bathroom. The trooper called his commanding officer at the Wayland Post and reported the firearm missing right after noticing he no longer had it, State Police Spokeswoman Shannon Banner said.

An investigation determined there was no malice on the part of the trooper in leaving the weapon behind. The investigation appeared to be the result of human error. He was not disciplined and remains on active duty.

“The trooper followed all proper policies and protocols,” Banner said.

Flanagan said he considered calling police to report his finding. He knew the firearm appeared expensive and well-built, but he also wondered what would happen if it had a history of criminal use and his fingerprints were on it.

“Where was the gun before I found it, had it ever been used in a crime?” Flanagan wondered. “Was I going to be subject to whatever crime it had been used for?”

Days turned into weeks.

Kalkaska Prosecutor Mike Perreault saw the situation as no different from a citizen finding a purse and deciding to keep it.

“You can’t take other people’s property. You can’t hide it in your house.”

But Flanagan said the gun had no identification and was safer locked up than on the street. Police have since told him the law gives citizens 20 days to return a “found” item without it being considered stolen.

“I didn’t know what the law read,” Flanagan said. Of the charges he faces: “I’m scared to death.”

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/10/northern_m...

 

So, a policeman leaves a loaded gun in a public bathroom and receives no punishment besides some snickers from his fellow officers, and the person who finds and secures this gun, fearful of what those same policeman might do with him if he turns in the gun, is now getting prosecuted for manufactured crimes that could have him incarcerated for ten years. 

Larceny involves taking someone else's property, stealing.  You find a purse on the street or in a public restroom without ID in it, and you are under no legal obligation to attempt to find its owner.  The police have misinformed him as to having 20 days to return property to its rightful owner.  A citizen has a "duty" to bring found property to law enforcement attention, but there is no penalty in the law if they don't, as per Act 273 of 1987. 

From my perspective, the only crime committed against the public here was that of the policeman who left a loaded .357 Magnum where a little child or a criminal could pick it up and use it.  But Prosecutor Perrault doesn't seem to notice that.  At least in Florida, they have their perspectives figured out.  The same circumstance happened there (except that a kid found the gun, and it was turned in without fatality), here's a video of that case:

  

This followed the original incident, where the police talked tough on prosecuting charges against someone who would leave their gun in the bathroom where kids could find it:

"The mistake of leaving a loaded semi-automatic handgun inside a bathroom stall at the Ybor City Muvico theater could cost detective Luke Hussey his job. But the 38-year-old will not face criminal charges despite what police told 10 News on Monday.

"We believe that this would meet the standard of willful and want in disregard and safety of others -- to leave a loaded weapon where a child, and in this case a 9-year-old, found the gun," Tampa Police Spokesperson Laura McElroy told 10 News on Monday before the gun owner was identified.

But late Tuesday police said they would not pursue charges after it was revealed the gun was owned by Hussey.

Today, McElroy told 10 News the decision not to pursue charges against Hussey has nothing to do with his role as a Hillsborough County Sheriff's detective.

"It was always our goal to ensure the person who left the gun face appropriate consequences for that action. There is no doubt that will happen within this organization," McElroy wrote in an email."

How many people actually believe that there exists 'equal justice under law' for the common citizens compared with police or other public officials, and can explain that to us who feel otherwise? 

[Dave]

Hmmm.... the whole situation is pretty messed up... I think though that Flanagan messed up right from the start by taking the gun and going off premises with it and then to not report it to the police is probably not the smartest move either. What he probably should of done is as soon as he realized that it was a real gun, he should of called the police and gotten hold of management of the store to block off the restroom til the police arrived and did whatever they needed to do. By removing the gun and then not reporting it to police or whoever, I just don't see where that could ever be a good idea. I do think the officer that left the gun in the bathroom should of been punished in some form, I mean I cringe to think what might of happened had say a kid went in there and found the gun and thinking it wasn't real put the gun to his head and pull trigger... that officer would of more likely been charged with some sort of crime.

On a lighter note, I went to Ybor City back in the 90's, fun place to go to while your in the Tampa/St Pete area. Its basically a bunch of different bars/clubs that are all on a street, you just walk from bar to bar and have a good time.

[XLFD]

The Ybor City Convention and Visitors Bureau thank you for that unsolicited testimonial. 

Hindsight is always twenty-twenty vision, one could say if he thought it was a toy gun he should have covered his hand with toilet paper to lift and inspect it, and then go through a scenario like you state (if he had a cell phone at the time).  But he touches it, maybe opens it to see its loaded, and then either through distrust of his local police agencies, succumbing to greed, or maybe fearful of his own background, he secures it.  With what the local prosecutor is doing now (with urging from police, no doubt), I can see why he would be fearful and distrustful. 

[Dave]

Needless to say, he didn't help his situation.

All I can say, if it was me in that situation that I'd rather take the risk with the cops and let them handle it, even with my fingerprints.. any cop with half a brain would be able to see only one set of my prints and that there were numerous prints by someone else on there, be hard to charge me with anything.... specially if it came back as a legally owned firearm (granted until a check of the serial number was done that you wouldn't know if it was legal or not).

[easymoney]

I personally feel that his intentions were to keep the pistol. Taking it home and, basically, hiding it tells me, he had no intentions of turning it in. The thought of it belonging to a police officer never entered his mind. Apparently his wife is far more honest than he is.

[XLFD]

Or she may have been worried about him using it on her; that separate incident may have been some sort of domestic disturbance between him and his wife. 

He probably had intended on keeping it.  I feel like I'm basically an honest person but in my life, I've found several things along the roads of the area while out biking, including hammers, other tools and knives likely dropped off from the back of some truck. 

These could have been involved with some sort of criminal mischief, but if they don't have some sort of identification on it, and I fancy it, and if I can carry it, it becomes mine.  I rationalize it like this guy almost, by saying that I'm picking up roadside litter.