Posted on 06/07/2008 6:30:29 AM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
A missing case of military assault rifles has turned up on Hill Air Force Base, but officials still don't know who took them.
Whoever took them had a change of heart. He brought the weapons back for base officials to find this morning.
Maj. Shannon Smith, air base wing security commander, said, "What we think happened was this was a crime of opportunity."
An early-morning phone call led base officials to the missing M-16 rifles. Smith said, "We think that he saw some of these news reports and decided the best thing to do was bring the weapons back."
Whoever it was, that person returned to the base and left the case at the horse stables, about a half mile from the Roy Gate. The man called the base at 5:45 this morning from a pay phone in Layton.
"He brought them out there because he thought that was a place he could drop them off, be undetected and get off base, and then a couple hours later, call us up and let us know where they were at," Smith said.
He left an apology note in the case.
Smith said, "The case was intact. All 12 weapons were intact. The serial numbers all matched the serial numbers of the missing weapons."
Base officials believe the man had the weapons for two days, that's when the case fell off a Humvee.
Members of the 729th Air Control Squadron were returning from a training exercise and left the tailgate down. Smith said, "We've had no incidents in any recent history of any lost weapons, so our procedures were sound. This was just a simple mistake."
He says anyone moving weapons will use a checklist to prevent this from happening again.
It's just one embarrassing mistake that's affected the Air Force's image. But officials say they're isolated incidents, and they're learning from them.
Air Base Wing Commander Linda Medler said, "As we look at each incident, we will make improvements, and we will move forward, and we will continue to be the best Air Force in the world."
Officials say this is still an ongoing investigation. They are trying to identify the man and urge him to come forward.
Based on his description, officials believe he's not a member of the military, but he has a credential to get on the base. He could face charges.
E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com E-mail: syi@ksl.com
Unless the government either can prove something about how he came to have possession, or cheats by withholding from the jury the fact that he gave them back prior to his having been detected, I can't see any basis for conviction. Had the guy been caught before the weapons were returned, it may have been hard to believe a claim that the only reason he possessed the weapons was so that he could return them. But given that the weapons were returned, such a claim would be hard not to believe. I know the government routinely cheats in voir dire, but the return of property to its rightful owner has long been recognized as a legitimate reason for possession.
Exactly. Realistically, if someone finds a crate lying in the middle of the road, what is one supposed to do:
Sure beats getting caught trying to sell them somewhere. I’m actually hoping the guy gets probation or something. If he’s an average guy, this little brush with trouble is more than enough to drive him straight forever. It’s a good bet that this dude hasn’t gotten much sleep in the last few days. He’s probably scared crapless every time the doorbell rings or he’s driving and there’s a cop a few cars back.
“This is the same base where about 14 years ago a sergeant tried to steal an F-16 engine from the depot.”
I was assigned on the base when that happened.
It was two security forces sergeants who stupidly tried ot sell the engine to guy who was a retired maintenance supervisor who then called the Office of Special Investigations office after they contacted him. They simply went to the engine shop.. grabed a mule and hooked on a engine... got caught out near the North Gate...
I use to live in the Dormitories assigned to the 720th Air Control Squadron while assigned to another unit.. I am NOT at all surprised to hear about a box of missing M-16’s...
But to all of who harping about the Air Force loosing these weapons... The Army has been documented to loose a whole lot more hand weapons.. up too Dragon anti-tank launchers...I can remember hearing about a gross of Marine Corps M-16’s come up missing on year.
Its bad enough about the Nuclear Weapons.. now a box of
M-16’s.. with the Chief of Staff resiging and the Secretary too.. I am sure there is going to be a whole lot of training stand-downs.. and a whole lot of procedure changes and examinations.
I have had a couple of phone calls from former co-workers bitching about how they have to
re-examine their processes on jobs and have them reviewed by the commander personally.
The Air Force is down.. but not out.
Something that big fall off a truck “”here”” and it would probably fall in a hole. Then the wind would blow dust over it and it would have never been discovered............I’ll bet !
“Fell of the truck.”
That’s up there with the dog ate my homework.
...big ole load of horse pucky! :-)
Being from the Ogden, UT area, I was thinking the same thing. Most of my co-workers and I had the same thought: “Fell off a truck, hell. The rifles were more likely taken from a warehouse or a security forces building.”
The military reported that the guns “fell off the truck” between 3:30 and 4:00 PM. That is go-home time for the base, it’s a total parade getting out of there. If the guns had fallen off a truck at that time on the base’s main thoroughfare (as reported by local media), a kazillion people would’ve seen it. It would’ve stopped traffic. If a lone guy had put the container in his trunk and driven off, a whole parade of people would’ve seen him do it. If that’s what happened, that dude is the most brazen guy in the world, and I can’t believe nobody would’ve gotten a license plate #.
Given the time of day, I’m betting a disgruntled warehouse worker took advantage of confusion during shift-change to steal the guns with a plan to unload them out of state, but he had a change of heart when he heard of the 10-year federal charges for each gun, essentially giving him a life-sentence if caught. Just a thought.
You can bet that everybody in the chain of custody or even near it is being grilled by investigators, who likewise don’t believe the “fell off a truck” story.
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