Gun found after 36 years; owner now missing
Published 8:48 am Monday, January 16, 2012
A gun stolen from Tupelo in 1975 has turned up in a Gautier pawn shop after spending nearly four decades on the national missing items list.
Tupelo Police Capt. Tim Tate tells the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (http://bit.ly/wWwN3o) that the 22-caliber Ruger revolver was in the glove box of a Ford pickup truck when the truck was stolen in 1975 from outside a lounge.
Tate said the truck was recovered two years later in Georgia, but the gun never had been found.
Tate said a man brought it into the Gautier pawn shop for cash. The shop employee entered the gun’s information into a national database. It came back as stolen and the Tupelo Police Department was notified.
Tate said police have not been able to find the truck owner.
He said the more than 36-year-old crime report never had a social security number, and the Nettleton address and telephone number for the man no longer are valid.
“As of right now, unless we find the victim, we might let the guy keep the gun,” Tate said. “There’s no telling how many times it changed hands.”
