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FL: Thief returns gun stolen from car to gun owner with a note about gun safety

Da_lucche

Da_lucche

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Port St. Lucie man says he learned a valuable lesson in gun safety after his stolen gun was secretly returned—with a disturbing message.

Mike Maisonneuve told local police that a gun with bullets and a knife were stolen from his unlocked car in his driveway, WPBF-TV reports.

But when he started to go back into his house, he noticed a bag next to the door with words scrawled on both sides.

One side read: LOADED GUN unlocked car = STUPID!!

The other side read: LOTS of children in area.

Inside the bag were his gun and the knife. But no bullets.

"I learned a lesson, a valid lesson" Maisonneuve told the television station. "I should not carry a loaded firearm in my car.

"My mind's been other places the last week or so. I thought I locked my car. Apparently I didn't," he said.

Interestingly, police are still looking for the person who swiped and returned the gun and knife. He or she could face charges of armed burglary, WPBF reported.
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http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sidesho...tolen-weapons-returned-message-190158697.html

Was it wise for the car owner to leave his gun in his car unlocked? No but it was on his own property and it is legal to keep at loaded gun in your car with a permit. But who do you think is made out to the be bad guy here? The thief who BROKE INTO this guy's car IN this guy's own driveway? Nope. The gun owner is being made out to be a criminal like usual while the main issue of an BREAKING AND ENTERING and ROBBERY by a real criminal is glossed over.
 
That thief needs to STFU and learn to respect other peoples property. Period. Its his car, noone has any right to be in it without his permission.
 
what lesson is that tho? it is ok to invade someone else's property and then enter another person's car without permission and commit a robbery to teach him a lesson? LOL. the funny thing is if this good Samaritan was trying to be the good person here, he broke about 4 laws to infringe on this gun owner's state right. Plus the knife was not returned.
 
Da_lucche said:
what lesson is that tho? it is ok to invade someone else's property and then enter another person's car without permission and commit a robbery to teach him a lesson? LOL. the funny thing is if this good Samaritan was trying to be the good person here, he broke about 4 laws to infringe on this gun owner's state right. Plus the knife was not returned.
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The knife was returned the "bullets" were not.
 
regardless of his own property or not I think its stupid to leave a loaded gun in your car, wether you think its locked or not. period.Thats my opinion which is prob worth squat. but I value my guns and license to carry to have it jeopardized by my gun being swiped and used in a murder etc. I bet it was also a neighbor. Unless it was the robin hood of thieves that broke in. Both parties messed up...wonder if they will ever find out who rolled him and returned most of his goods
 
I must be stupid....I leave a loaded gun in my car all the time.

It's locked to the spare tire with a cable gun lock. It'll keep honest people honest. But if you really wanted it, you could steal the spare too. You'd look funny walking down the street with a rifle attached to a tire.

I lock my car doors, 99.999% of the time. The crime committed by the guy who broke into the car...NOT the car/gun owner
 
Borrowing it to teach someone a lesson is still larceny. So, bad judgment for the gun owner and equally bad judgment for the lesson teacher.

In defense of the FL gun owner, everyone in FL has a gun so no need to steal one from a third party.
 
Of course a thief would have a problem with people keeping loaded guns in their car. Thieves hate when their victims can defend themselves.
 
Oh, and I'm calling BS. I don't believe this "victim" is actually the victim of a crime. I don't believe there was a thief who did this. Sounds like an anti trying to make the news.
 
BOBKATT said:
Oh, and I'm calling BS. I don't believe this "victim" is actually the victim of a crime. I don't believe there was a thief who did this. Sounds like an anti trying to make the news.
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Close. Guy just bought a new gun for himself and didn't have the stones to tell his wife...
 
Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying the thief was right. In his mind though, a loaded gun in an car with kids around... I'm sure the guy feels like he did the world a service.
 
I hate when people snoop around and mess with my stuff, especially my loaded guns.
 
MAGG said:
regardless of his own property or not I think its stupid to leave a loaded gun in your car, wether you think its locked or not. period.Thats my opinion which is prob worth squat. but I value my guns and license to carry to have it jeopardized by my gun being swiped and used in a murder etc. I bet it was also a neighbor. Unless it was the robin hood of thieves that broke in. Both parties messed up...wonder if they will ever find out who rolled him and returned most of his goods
Click to expand...

This didn't happen in MA, it was in FL! In FL it is legal to leave a loaded gun in your car/glove box, etc. It is quite common. Not sure you even need a license to carry it in a car that way.

You don't need a license to own guns in FL. Local chiefs have no say in issuing licenses, it is done by the state with a single set of rules.

You are thinking too much like a MA inmate! [thinking]



DJ_99Wing said:
Can you imagine if something like this happened in MA. OMG... [shocked]
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It's illegal to leave a loaded gun in a car in MA. Different set of laws and yes he'd lose all his guns/ammo/mags and LTC would be gone forever in most towns.

But other states aren't as anal about such matters and have more reasonable laws.
 
Bottom line this guy broke no laws. How and where he keeps his guns is his choice. If this asshat didnt break into his car the gun would stilll be safley sitting there. Too bad home owner didnt catch him in the act and beat the ever living *&%= out of him and then have his ass arrested. Now that would have been a lesson.
 
MAGG said:
regardless of his own property or not I think its stupid to leave a loaded gun in your car, wether you think its locked or not. period.Thats my opinion which is prob worth squat. but I value my guns and license to carry to have it jeopardized by my gun being swiped and used in a murder etc. I bet it was also a neighbor. Unless it was the robin hood of thieves that broke in. Both parties messed up...wonder if they will ever find out who rolled him and returned most of his goods
Click to expand...

And do you also believe that it is stupid to leave an unsecured, loaded firearm in your own home??

One point that I also noticed in this article is that the owner stated that he thought that he had LOCKED his vehicle. Is it possible that the criminal unlocked the car in order to gain entry? I know I've probably unlocked a couple of hundred cars with tools over the course of my career and some of them take mere seconds.
 
glockstar said:
Bottom line this guy broke no laws. How and where he keeps his guns is his choice. If this asshat didnt break into his car the gun would stilll be safley sitting there. Too bad home owner didnt catch him in the act and beat the ever living *&%= out of him and then have his ass arrested. Now that would have been a lesson.
Click to expand...


+1. Probably the most intelligent comment in this whole thread.
 
glockstar said:
Bottom line this guy broke no laws. How and where he keeps his guns is his choice. If this asshat didnt break into his car the gun would stilll be safley sitting there. Too bad home owner didnt catch him in the act and beat the ever living *&%= out of him and then have his ass arrested. Now that would have been a lesson.
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+1

Also.. the other point being brought up here is the fact that the thief brought up all of the children in the neighborhood. 1. Kind of hypocritical for thief to be worried about the wellbeing of others. 2. What kind of neighborhood kids are sifting through unlocked cars? (unless they are little theives themselves) & 3. The only laws that were broken were by the robber, hopefully they catch him and glue some note to him about robbing cars and leaving extra evidence.
 
I don't understand why you guys are getting all indignant. I'm not seeing anything in the article that claims the gun owner did something wrong/illegal.

I think we can all agree its not wise to leave a loaded gun in an unlocked car - that doesn't mean the thief is right in what he did. Carry on.
 
one-eyed Jack said:
So glad that I saw this thread. Reminded me to go out and cover up the Thompson which I left laying on the back seat. To keep things safe I did have a chamber flag in it, however. Jack.
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I have always wondered what is so safe about keeping an open bolt gun with it's bolt open. Short of a true chamber obstruction (as opposed to what most chamber flags are), it's like leaving a 1911 cocked and unlocked...
 
I'm curious how someone can be labeled a thief when nothing was taken. The guy went to his car, saw the gun missing and called police, then saw the bag when he went to walk back in the house. Person probably saw the gun laying out in an unlocked car and grabbed it, unloaded it and put it on the doorstep without even skipping a beat. At least the guy still has his gun and knife, if it had been a less honest person, the gun would be gone for good. Take it as a lesson to at least put the gun under your seat or in the glove box when you exit the car. Willing to bet none of this would have happened if the gun had at least been hidden from view.

Then again, most of us drive around with all the stuff people like to steal just sitting out on the seats in plain view, right? [rolleyes]

Guy never should have touched the gun or knife, but the owner probably got saved from having his gun stolen by someone less scrupulous; chalk it up as a lesson learned and get on with your life.
 
Scarecrow said:
I'm curious how someone can be labeled a thief when nothing was taken.
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If you steal someone's car and return it, you still have committed theft. Period. Returning it doesn't "un commit" the crime.

-Mike
 
drgrant said:
If you steal someone's car and return it, you still have committed theft. Period. Returning it doesn't "un commit" the crime.

-Mike
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Absolutely. Scarecrow, if he stole your car and gave it back you wouldn't call it a theft? For an hour, your car was stolen. Maybe I'll rob a liquor store and return all the alcohol ,scott free .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
 
Cap said:
I don't understand why you guys are getting all indignant. I'm not seeing anything in the article that claims the gun owner did something wrong/illegal.

I think we can all agree its not wise to leave a loaded gun in an unlocked car - that doesn't mean the thief is right in what he did. Carry on.
Click to expand...

My issue with the article is that its portraying the thief as teaching a law abiding citizen a "lesson" when the law abiding citizen did not break any law while the article glosses over the real issue...an actual criminal committing 4 crimes (wow surprise), including trespassing, B&E and robbery.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
 
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