Rare find, very rare

[lrahm]

I won't and can't give a lot of specifics. Last fall, I was called out by an officer on a strange, very strange find. A bank was opening unused safety deposit boxes. For some reason there were not any records of the person who rented this one out or when. If I could tell the whole story, it was not the bank's fault. Inside were 15 rare guns complete in their display wood boxes. The cleaning rods were not used. All of the guns had target hammers and triggers. There were also several makes and models. Each were engraved and had never been fired. I tried the trigger pull on several. It was an honor to hold some of the heavy framed guns. Some were laced with gold and each were special in their own right. There were some that were the same model only in a 4, 6 and 8 inch barrel.

I have to give credit to the staff. The manager called his boss who came to inspect the find. He stated that they would make every effort to match the serial numbers with the manufactures to get them back to the rightful family. He stated that the state does not seize weapons from the safety deposit boxes and if they coud not be found, they would be sold at auction and the proceeds would go to a charity.

 

[littletommy]

Wow! It's absolutely mind boggling to think what is just laying somewhere, forgotten.

 

[Que]

That is a great story and sounds like a pretty good bank to do business with. I would have liked to see some pics, but I understand you cannot divulge too much infortation.

 

[handgun]

Well, sometimes when the banks change hands the security boxes of course stay at the bank.

I will be making a phone call to some family members to make sure they didn't have any such things inside a bank vault..

 

[lrahm]

That is a great story and sounds like a pretty good bank to do business with. I would have liked to see some pics, but I understand you cannot divulge too much infortation.

My guess is that due to some of the age of some of the weapons, there was at least $50,000 plus. I figure that the guy bought the weapons and had them hidden from the family. I wish that I took pictures but I was too excited in just looking. Holding a couple was amazing. There was one weapon that probably went beyond the 50 grand mark by itself.

 

[handgun]

My guess is that due to some of the age of some of the weapons, there was at least $50,000 plus. I figure that the guy bought the weapons and had them hidden from the family. I wish that I took pictures but I was too excited in just looking. Holding a couple was amazing. There was one weapon that probably went beyond the 50 grand mark by itself.

You are very correct. that is what some lock boxes are for.. To hide certain things from family members.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

This strikes me as a potentially sad story. Somebody owned those guns and rather than them going to a family member or friend or charity, etc.. They remained in that vault all but forgotten. Any stories or history about how they came to be possessed or any meaning to the owner is lost.

Que, another good reason to get those wills, huh?

 

[leftsock]

I hope these get to their rightful (and hopefully appreciative) owners. If they go to auction though, I'm sure we'd all love to get the information on that auction, if only to see the firearms.

 

[lrahm]

I hope these get to their rightful (and hopefully appreciative) owners. If they go to auction though, I'm sure we'd all love to get the information on that auction, if only to see the firearms.

I was pretty sure that the manager would try his best to run down the owner or family. It seemed like he had done this before.

 

[indykid]

A possible really sad side to this is that the person who bought the box to hide his/her stuff might have died leaving no will or record of what is in the box.

Just surprised that the bank has no record of who was renting the box.

 

[Jack Burton]

Back many years ago you didn't have to jump thru all the legal hoops to open a bank account. W.C. Fields distrusted everyone and when passing thru a small town, usually in the midwest he would stop to open an account in a local bank under an assumed name, and drop a good portion of his money into it. And never told anyone.

After he died there was no record of all the money he had stashed away at dozens of different banks scattered across the country. That money is, of course, long gone under more recent banking laws allowing them to sieze it, but for a while it must have had a lot of banks wondering just who this client was after a couple of decades of no activity.

 

[lrahm]

Back many years ago you didn't have to jump thru all the legal hoops to open a bank account. W.C. Fields distrusted everyone and when passing thru a small town, usually in the midwest he would stop to open an account in a local bank under an assumed name, and drop a good portion of his money into it. And never told anyone.

After he died there was no record of all the money he had stashed away at dozens of different banks scattered across the country. That money is, of course, long gone under more recent banking laws allowing them to sieze it, but for a while it must have had a lot of banks wondering just who this client was after a couple of decades of no activity.

I was told by the bank they will seize everything except guns.

 

[figley]

That was vaguely cool, how you saw something, somewhere, and started a whole thread on INGO to not tell about it.

 

[Sylvain]

You didn't have your Dremel tool handy to engrave your name quickly on a few guns to claim property of them.

 

[lrahm]

That was vaguely cool, how you saw something, somewhere, and started a whole thread on INGO to not tell about it.

I'm sorry. When I worte about it, I wanted to be sure that the guns had been taken care of first. I couldn't really give too much info about it for fear of discipline from my department. Believe me, it happened and I am sorry that I can't give any more info. I wish that I could give pictures of each gun. This is a collection that anyone would love to have. I have been thinking about this for months and would love to have any of them.

 

[lrahm]

You didn't have your Dremel tool handy to engrave your name quickly on a few guns to claim property of them.

I wish I did. Sadly, there was a representative from the bank recording everything. In time, I will be able to tell more and give more info. I will also see about if they have been claimed or if they will go up for auction.

 

[perry]

Why were the police called?

 

[mrortega]

I had a very close family member die and almost a year later someone from one of the local banks whom I knew through a friend of a friend called and said I should know about a deposit box that even the guy's wife didn't know about. I checked it out and found several thousands of dollars of CDs in there. It eventually got straightened out but if it hadn't been for the friend I don't know what would have happened to that money.

 

[greghvac]

if they go to auction let us know would love to see them

 

[lrahm]

Why were the police called?

Not necessarilly because of the guns. They had no record of the owner. They wanted some type of incident report on file for their records. They wanted to cover their behinds. Can't say as I blame them.