Wow, that is quite a story. The really sad part is that local police chiefs appear to have lots of power to "misplace" paperwork in order to cause massive delays. It almost would have been easier to ask a buddy in a friendlier jurisdiction to obtain the valid permit, purchase the firearm, and then subsequently sell it to you in a perfectly legal person-to-person transaction.
~ Blue Jays ~
Actually, it wasn't so much the local police chief as those faceless, nameless, anonymous bureaucrats in state and federal agencies. He was ultimately as much at their mercy as I was -- he couldn't issue a permit untill they were also on board.