Man Reunited With Rifle After More Than Four Decades Apart

More than 40 years ago, a resident of the small town of Commerce City, Colorado was the victim of a burglary, and among the items stolen was a rifle. 

While most of the property that was taken has long vanished, last week the owner of that rifle received the unexpected news that his long gun had been recovered decades later and hundreds of miles away. 

The Commerce City Police Department said detectives never forgot about the break-in after Jerry’s rifle was stolen in a home burglary 44 years ago. So when the gun was flagged after someone tried to pawn it in North Dakota last week, a department detective was on it. 

The department’s evidence technician, Cara, helped ship the rifle home, and finally, after nearly half a century, “Jerry got his gun back!” The department said Jerry was reunited with what’s now a sentimental piece of property, as it was a gift from his wife, who has since passed away.

This would be a great story even if Jerry’s wife was still with him, but the fact that this gift of hers has been recovered after she passed away makes it even more significant. 

In a statement, a Commerce City PD spokesperson said while they “couldn’t get back everything that was stolen on that day in 1981, this rifle is one step closer to making Jerry whole.” 

I don’t know that Jerry will ever be made whole, but I’m pretty sure that being able to once again hold the rifle that his wife gave him all those years ago is a big deal to him. At least, I know how important it would be to me if something Miss E had given me had been stolen and I had the chance to hold it once again. 

I do wonder if we’ll ever learn how the rifle ended up at a pawn shop in North Dakota. The statute of limitations has long run out on any burglary charges in connection with the break-in at Jerry’s house back in 1981, and there’s a substantial change that the perpetrator of that crime has passed on since then. It’s not really possible for Jerry to get justice for what was taken from him all those years ago, but having his gun returned is a pretty good consolation prize. 

I’m not a huge fan of requiring firearms to be serialized, but I will say that if Jerry hadn’t recorded the serial number on the rifle and provided that information to the Commerce City police 44 years ago there’s little chance that he would have ever been reunited with that precious gift from his late wife, so this is also a good reminder that, regardless of how you feel about requiring serial numbers on firearms, it is a good idea to record those numbers somewhere in case of a theft or break-in. At the very least it will help aid in any reimbursement from homeowners or renters insurance, and it may very well lead to you getting your gun back if it’s ever recovered… hopefully in less than 44 years. 

Editor’s Note: Whether it’s feel-good stories like this, armed citizens acting in self-defense, or the legislative and legal news impacting your Second Amendment rights, Bearing Arms is dedicated to reporting the news that’s of vital interest to gun owners. 

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