Man agrees to sell his guns after allegedly leaving one in McDonald’s bathroom

[Wendell]

A Hancock County man has agreed to sell off all of his firearms after accidentally leaving an unloaded handgun in the bathroom of an Ellsworth McDonald’s earlier this month, police said. The 70-year-old man, whom police have declined to identify because he hasn’t been charged with a crime, reached the arrangement after negotiations involving him, his attorney and the Hancock County district attorney’s office, according to Capt. Troy Bires of the Ellsworth Police Department.
https://bangordailynews.com/2019/02/27/news/hancock/man-agrees-to-sell-his-guns-after-allegedly-leaving-one-in-mcdonalds-bathroom/

[JodyH]

I'm guessing there's more to the story.
Probably diagnosed with dementia and family helped him make the decision to sell the guns.
BTDT but with a car.

[UNK]

I'm guessing there's more to the story.
Probably diagnosed with dementia and family helped him make the decision to sell the guns.
BTDT but with a car.
Took a judge to take my moms license and a hearing with a jury to get control of her affairs. Alzheimer’s/dementia is a real bitch.

[JohnO]

We have a sign in sheet on my club range. The range is unsupervised but they want to know who was there and when.

There was a day I had the range to myself. I signed in, did my thing, signed out and left. Around 30 to 60 minutes after leaving the range I had been home and gone back out. My wife called my cell and told me a guy from the range called the house looking for me. He got my name from the sign in sheet and my number from the club president. My wife gave him my cell number. He called, the call went like this:

Guy: This is Bill from the range. You have my gun.
Me: Excuse me!

Bill: I got your name from the sign in sheet. You were the only one at the range since I left. You have my gun.
Me: What? What gun? What the hell are you talking about?

Bill: I was at the range and left shortly before you arrived. I don't have my gun. I went back to the range looking for it and my gun is not there so you have it.
Me: (Still trying to figure out if I'm talking to a lunatic.) I'm sorry I have no idea what you are talking about.

Bill: Listen, I don't have my gun. I must have left it at the range. You were there after me. I arrived back at the range 10 minutes after you signed out. You have my gun!
Me: (Now getting ready to say, Go "F" yourself.) I'm sorry I have no idea what you are talking about. I went to the range. I shot. I packed up. Made sure I left nothing behind. There were no "Guns" laying around and I left.

Bill: Well I don't have my gun ...

This crazy ass conversation went on for 10 more minutes. The gun in question was a long gun, a rifle.

Me: I explained I saw nothing when I arrived and after I finished & packed up I went back to the firing line like I always do to MAKE SURE I have everything which includes scanning all the benches (about 10 positions) on the firing line under the cover. I said If there were a rifle there I would have SEEN it and I did not!
Bill: You Must have it.
Me: (To myself This guy is a lunatic!)

Me: Have you checked you vehicle?
Bill: Yes it's not there. You have it!

Me: Have you called the club president to see if anyone turned in your gun?
Bill: Yes, that's how I got your number. He doesn't have it.

Somehow I got off the phone with this nut case.

About 30 minutes later he called me and told me he found his rifle in his garage. No apology! Hell I'm surprised he actually called. His unapologetic indifferent tone was priceless. He told me he forgot he took it out of his truck and rested it up against the wall in his garage.

A real winner this guy!

[JRB]

We have a sign in sheet on my club range. The range is unsupervised but they want to know who was there and when.

There was a day I had the range to myself. I signed in, did my thing, signed out and left. Around 30 to 60 minutes after leaving the range I had been home and gone back out. My wife called my cell and told me a guy from the range called the house looking for me. He got my name from the sign in sheet and my number from the club president. My wife gave him my cell number. He called, the call went like this:

Guy: This is Bill from the range. You have my gun.
Me: Excuse me!

Bill: I got your name from the sign in sheet. You were the only one at the range since I left. You have my gun.
Me: What? What gun? What the hell are you talking about?

Bill: I was at the range and left shortly before you arrived. I don't have my gun. I went back to the range looking for it and my gun is not there so you have it.
Me: (Still trying to figure out if I'm talking to a lunatic.) I'm sorry I have no idea what you are talking about.

Bill: Listen, I don't have my gun. I must have left it at the range. You were there after me. I arrived back at the range 10 minutes after you signed out. You have my gun!
Me: (Now getting ready to say, Go "F" yourself.) I'm sorry I have no idea what you are talking about. I went to the range. I shot. I packed up. Made sure I left nothing behind. There were no "Guns" laying around and I left.

Bill: Well I don't have my gun ...

This crazy ass conversation went on for 10 more minutes. The gun in question was a long gun, a rifle.

Me: I explained I saw nothing when I arrived and after I finished & packed up I went back to the firing line like I always do to MAKE SURE I have everything which includes scanning all the benches (about 10 positions) on the firing line under the cover. I said If there were a rifle there I would have SEEN it and I did not!
Bill: You Must have it.
Me: (To myself This guy is a lunatic!)

Me: Have you checked you vehicle?
Bill: Yes it's not there. You have it!

Me: Have you called the club president to see if anyone turned in your gun?
Bill: Yes, that's how I got your number. He doesn't have it.

Somehow I got off the phone with this nut case.

About 30 minutes later he called me and told me he found his rifle in his garage. No apology! Hell I'm surprised he actually called. His unapologetic indifferent tone was priceless. He told me he forgot he took it out of his truck and rested it up against the wall in his garage.

A real winner this guy!

Which is precisely why I loathe sign in sheets like that. Does far more harm than good these days.

You should get a free membership extension/renewal for having to deal with that shit.

[Paul D]

That is why I take an aspirin and watch my cholesterol. Microvascular brain disease=Rudely asking people for my lost gun that I really left in stall 2 at the McDonald's

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[Darth_Uno]

I'm guessing there's more to the story.
Probably diagnosed with dementia and family helped him make the decision to sell the guns.
BTDT but with a car.

Probably so. Sad, but necessary, if that’s really the case.

Years ago I realized a Sig 220 was missing out of my safe. Nobody’s going to break in, steal only the 220, and leave without a trace. So I knew I left it...somewhere. After mental back-tracking, I found it in my wife’s trunk. For whatever reason (she probably parked behind my truck) I had taken her car to the range. Apparently it’d been in the trunk for months when I “found” it. Thing is, my wife knew it was there the whole time and didn’t question it. Gotta love Texas girls.


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[Hambo]

If your safe is crowded enough, it's possible to sell a gun, forget you sold it, and offer it to someone else who wanted it. Posting for a friend. ;)

[JohnO]

In the story I told above there is a distinct reason I suggested "Bill" call the club president. We have a retired cop (I'll call him Marty) now up in years who has on two occasions left his box of pistols on the range. I generally try to avoid Marty. He complained about me and a friend being "Wyatt Earp" types because we were shooting from the holster under a timer. There are no restrictions or rules against drawing and shooting.

I was alone at the range when the club president was leaving. We said hi and before we parted ways he mentioned that a couple days prior he got called to the range because a member found guns left on the range. This was before they adopted the sign in/out sheets.

Fast forward 30 to 45 minutes later I see Marty pull in and start wandering around like he is looking for something. For a few moments I avoid acknowledging he is on the range poking around.

Me: Hi
Marty: Hi

Me: Are you looking for something?
Marty: (I don't remember exactly how he put it but he was quite reluctant to say what he was doing. There was a good bit of stammering.) This is kind of embarrassing but I'm looking for my guns. I'm shooting falling plates at a match today and I can't find my guns. I was here a couple days ago and now I can't find my guns.

Me: Call the club president. he was here earlier and told me about a box of pistols found on the range, a few days ago.
Marty: Thanks

He took the presidents number from the cork board and drove off.

Since that incident I heard Marty had a repeat performance. Sunday's at 11:00 AM Marty and his brother-in-law are regulars at the range. I guess his B-I-L must be keeping him out of trouble.

As much a being complained about was disconcerting I guess being compared to Wyatt Earp wasn't so bad!

[Clusterfrack]

Several years ago a LEO group left a select fire MP5 at the range shack. Oops.

[SAWBONES]

Nearly everyone has had the occasional experience of thought-blocking, the most common sort being that of going into a room for some reason, then thinking "what was it that I going to do in here?"

Usually, when you then go to do something else, the reason for your original assay into the first room re-occurs to you.

Truly important ideas, or appropriate attention to really important objects or persons don't typically get "thought-blocked", that is, one doesn't just "forget" his sidearm in the restaurant bathroom, or drive home while accidentally leaving his spouse stranded at the grocery store; something more fundamental usually has to be amiss in cases like those, such as a drug/alcohol effect on cognition, or an incipient dementing illness.

(There are rare but genuine examples of "absent-minded professor" types, who are otherwise quite mentally intact, but who can lose track of important information at times.)

"Forgetting" a select-fire MP5 or a "box of guns" at the range implies either a really marked degree of irresponsibility, or profound difficulties with attention-concentration related to some sort of a pharmacologic/medical issue.

[Wendell]

..."Forgetting" a select-fire MP5 or a "box of guns" at the range implies either a really marked degree of irresponsibility, or profound difficulties with attention-concentration related to some sort of a pharmacologic/medical issue.

I think that is an incorrect rush to judgement. In my experience, shooting friends and coworkers - being helpful, whether you need it or not - often step in to carry your gear, often loading the gear into your vehicle (and not necessarily where you'd stow it). In these cases, there is a real risk of your losing track of things and - unless you have a strict system - something can be missed. I've left things behind before... ammunition, glasses, muffs, magazines... and I've arrived home with a cased shotgun and a bag of ammunition that didn't belong to me... but in each case it had nothing to do with irresponsibility and it had nothing to do with attention or concentration, it had to do with 'help'. Nonetheless, I now follow a system (designed to prevent it).

[TGS]

I think that is an incorrect rush to judgement. In my experience, shooting friends and coworkers - being helpful, whether you need it or not - often step in to carry your gear, often loading the gear into your vehicle (and not necessarily where you'd stow it). In these cases, there is a real risk of your losing track of things and - unless you have a strict system - something can be missed. I've left things behind before... ammunition, glasses, muffs, magazines... and I've arrived home with a cased shotgun and a bag of ammunition that didn't belong to me... but in each case it had nothing to do with irresponsibility and it had nothing to do with attention or concentration, it had to do with 'help'. Nonetheless, I now follow a system (designed to prevent it).

Holy shit.

I'm just here to be the first to point out that this might very well be the first time Wendell has actually posted his own words instead of just ripping off the first paragraph of a news article and posting it without comment.

It's alive! And all these years I thought you were just a Bot or Indian spam-farmer.

[JodyH]

Several years ago a LEO group left a select fire MP5 at the range shack. Oops.
I picked a 870 belonging to the PD out of the ditch at the first turn out of our range gate.
I'm guessing it was on the trunk lid or rear bumper when he drove off and the curve was the first opportunity it had to slide off.
I'm also guessing the officer who lost it caught hell because I heard he didn't even know it was missing (and they'd been to the range a few days before I saw it in the ditch).

I also picked up a S&W Shield out of the middle of a busy street one day. It had been run over a few times but still in one piece (and fully loaded).
I'm guessing it fell off a trunk/bumper or out of a motorcyclist waistband (or might have been tossed out a window by a hoodlum).
I called the cops to come pick that one up from me because no way was I keeping it.

[RevolverRob]

Back when I sold guns for a living. I had a guy come in to buy a gun, he'd come in a few days before and he'd bought a gun sold to him by a co-worker. He said, "I keep buying guns and this girl keeps stealing them!"

Something didn't add up in this guy's story. So, after I questioned him for a while, I came to the conclusion that there was a dementia/Alzheimers angle. The man could not tell either myself or my manager what year it was, let alone what month. So, we declined to sell him a gun (which made him quite mad, I get that, I do). And our office called the local ATF guys who did our audits. They noted it in both NICS and we noted it in our storewide systems. He tried to buy three more guns over the next two days at different stores. Finally, the ATF Investigators got caught up and went to the man's home and found his daughter there. She was relieved and explained to the investigators, "My god, thank you for putting a stop to this. He has Alzheimers and kept buying guns and I kept taking and hiding them from him. Please tell me you can do something to prevent him?" Because she had power of attorney, they were able to put him into NICS as a flagged for Denial, but it apparently took some work.

Dementia/Alzheimers is a hell of a thing. I watched my wife's grandmother go through it and saw what it does to families. If I'm ever diagnosed in that realm - I don't really want to live long enough to torture my family with that. It's a horrible, horrible, way to go. It's things like Alzheimers, Parkinsons, MS, and terminal untreatable cancers, that make me feel that medically assisted suicide should very much be legal in every state. The pain and suffering it places on a person and their family is, frankly, preventable.