No he did not. It's against fed law to deal in stolen firearms and there's no statute of limitations. The thief violated fed law by involving himself in interstate firearms transactions where the firearm was not lawfully his. Call the ATF and have the f'er tossed in jail.
It was the Greely police detective that told me the the statute of limitations ran out and he was closing the case. It may just be laziness on his part. It is true however that in Colorado the dealers are not required to check the background of a gun when it is traded in.
The gun was a cheap Mossberg, so it's not worth my spending a lot of energy on the whole thing. Don't worry folks, I give up, I'll not give the anti-gunners anything to grab on to. I do think that I will have another talk with the gun dealer, he owes me.